
Glass _ 
Book. 



Sf it 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE INSECTS 

MENTIONED IN SHAKSPEARE'S PLAYS. 




W. L. Graves & Co. Printers, Lo do 




W¥ SIBL&IEESIPJSAIB2E . 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE INSECTS 



MENTIONED IN SHAKSPEaRE'S PLAYS. 



H T Y [L.LITS T li A T ■ () X S. 



BY ROBERT PATTERSON, 



Ti'.K-iSI'i'.EK OF THE NATURAL, HISTORY SOCIETY OF BBLKAbT 




LONDON: 
A. K. NEWMAN & CO. LEAPENHALL STREET. 



1842. 



PREFACE. 



It was my duty, in common with other members of 
the Natural History Society of Belfast, to furnish 
papers for some of those meetings in our Museum, 
held on what are termed " Public Nights." On these 
occasions ladies as well as gentlemen are admitted as 
visitors, and the reader abandons, in a great degree, 
the technicalities of science for " metal more attrac- 
tive." 

Several of these papers I had the honour of read- 
ing at various intervals between the 1st of March, 
1832, and the 1st of January, 1836. They were 
then thrown into the epistolary form, in which they 
appear in the following pages ; and with the excep- 
tion of some verbal amendments, and the introduc- 
tion of some additional quotations, as the sheets 
were passing through the press, they are now printed 
as they were then arranged. 

This brief statement of the circumstances under 
which these "Letters" were written will, I trust, 
a 3 



extenuate many of their imperfections. They were 
designed as the commencement of a series of illus- 
trations of the Natural History of Shakspeare's 
Plays. The attempt to blend the imagery of the 
Bard with the facts recorded by Science, has been 
made in the humble hope, that the worshippers of 
our Great Dramatist might be pleased to see another 
offering laid upon his shrine, and that the youthful 
lovers of Entomology might be attracted by the ex- 
hibitions of her charms, reflected in the bright ima- 
ginings of the Poet. 

All arrangements with respect to the illustrative 
woodcuts have been entrusted to the Publishers. 
Many of these they were enabled to give without 
adding to the expense of the work, and for others 
they are indebted to the pencil of Mr. G. F. Sar- 
geant, a young artist of taste and talent. To J. O. 
Westwood, Esq., the indefatigable Secretary of the 
London Entomological Society, my grateful acknow- 
ledgments are due for the nattering terms in which, 
both to myself and others, he expressed himself 
respecting the MS. of this little work, and encouraged 
me to venture on its publication. 

R. P. 

Belfast, 3, College Square North, 
13th June, 1838. 



CONTENTS. 



LETTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE. 

Ennui occasionally experienced while residing in the country. 
Its cause. Originates in a defective system of educa- 
tion. Proper meaning of the term Naturalist. The legiti- 
mate ohjects of his inquiry. Periodical changes in the 
aspect of the external world. Pleasures which the study 
of Nature affords; mental effects of such pursuits. — 
Poetry and Natural History might " each give to each a 
double charm." Inquiry proposed with regard to the 
knowledge of Natural Phenomena, exhibited by some of 
our most admired Poets. Shakspeare "the Poet of Nature." 
Opinion of Dr. Johnson. Remark of the late John Tem- 
pleton, Esq. Shakspeare, in accurate observation, superior 
to Milton. Illustrative extracts from " Lycidas" and the 
" Winter's Tale." Number of the notices of natural ob- 
jects in the Dramatic Works of Shakspeare. Their in- 
vestigation, why interesting . . . page 1 

LETTER II. 

ENTOMOLOGY RECOMMENDED. 

Solace which the study of Natural History affords to the man 
of business. The benefits it confers on the man possessed 
of leisure. The study of insects proposed. It should 



Vlll CONTENTS, 

not be deemed frivolous, because the objects are diminu- 
tive. They are a portion of the works of God. Their 
diversity and beauty. Peculiar advantage enjoyed by the 
Entomologist. Numbers of insects. Importance of a 
knowledge of their habits. Their destructive powers. Be- 
nefits they confer ..... page 13 

LETTER III. 

LARVAE AND PUP.E. 

Advantages which may be. anticipated from the proposed in- 
quiry. Subject of the present Letter, — Insects in their 
early or imperfect states. Expression used by Hamlet, 
" If the sun breed maggots in a dead dog." Distinction 
between the vertebrate animals and insects. Destructive 
powers possessed by caterpillars ; frequently mentioned by 
Shakspeare. The pupa state. " There is a difference be- 
tween a grub and a butterfly." " The smirch'd moth- 
eaten tapestry." "The worm i' the bud ;" " the canker." 
Cocoon of the silk-worm; its value. "The worms were 
hallowed that did breed the silk." " An empty hazel nut." 
" The old grub." " Your worm is your only emperor for 
diet." Different meanings of the word " worm" in 
Shakspeare . . . . . . . 27 

LETTER IV. 

ORAL APPARATUS. 

The structure of the mouth different in the several orders of 
insects. Destruction occasioned by a species of ant in 
Grenada, — by locusts. Advantage of the use of scientific 
terms. Difference of motion in the mouths of vertebrate 



CONTENTS. IX 

animals and those of insects. Structure of the mouth in 
the order Coleoptera. Sense in which the phrase " a per- 
fect mouth," is used. It consists of seven parts ; their 
names and uses. Palpi ; their supposed functions. Mouth 
of the Orthoptera, — of the Hymenoptera. Various pur- 
poses to which the mandihles are applied. Mechanism 
and use of the tongue in bees. The corolla sometimes 
pierced to obtain the honey. Simihes supplied by the 
butterfly and moth. Mouth of the Lepidoptera, — of 
the Diptera; " poor harmless fly," &c. Hemiptera ; 
meaning of the word " bug," in Shakspeare. Aphaniptera ; 
" a flea sticking upon Bartolph's nose." Aptera ; " the 
dozen white louses;" description by Swammerdam. Variety 
of mechanism exhibited in the varied formation of the 
several mouths now described . . . page 4 1 

LETTER V. 

ORDER COLEOPTERA. 

'The shard-borne beetle ;" description of its flight, by Collins, 
Gray, Hogg, and Shakspeare. Meanings of the word 
" shards." The Dor — Geotrupes stercorarius. Interest ex- 
cited by the Scaraoceus sacer; its habits. Extracts from 
Clarke and Denon. Representations of the insect found on 
unrolling mummies. Geotrvpes vernalis. Difference in the 
nidus of this beetle, and that of G. stercorarius. Time of 
the appearance of the latter. It feigns death. Similar 
procedure in a corn-crake. The Dor infested with para- 
sites ; plan adopted to get rid of them. Strength of the 
beetle. Illustrative extracts from Catesby's " Carolina," 
and Sir Walter Scott's " Peveril of the Peak." Numbers 



X CONTENTS. 

in which these insects sometimes appear. Their cleanli- 
ness. Study of them recommended . . page 63 

LETTER VI. 
coleoptera (continued). 
The predacious beetles. Number and habits of the Carabidae - 
" The poor beetle that we tread upon ;" meaning of the 
passage. Prevailing ignorance of the variety observed 
among the insects known by the English name of beetles. 
Pleasures of meeting with the rarer species. They are 
found even in the most barren places. Birkie bog. The 
" tiger of the insect tribes." " The fiery glow-worm's 
eyes." Remarks of Dr. Johnson, Mason, and Douce, on 
those words. The " fire," why " uneffectual." Light of 
the male and female glow-worm ; description of its ap- 
pearance, by Kirby and Spence. The insect unknown in 
the north of Ireland. Its appearance on Ben Lomond" 
" Dost know this water-fly ? " What insect is here alluded 
to. Gyrinus found in a shell ; probable cause of its select- 
ing such a habitation 77 

LETTER VII. 

ORTHOPTERA AND HOMOFTERA. 

The Grasshopper and Cricket. Poetical notices of the former. 
The cricket, "always harbinger of good." A prevalent 
opinion erroneous. Feelings associated with their chirp. 
" As merry as crickets." Their chirp noticed by Rogers, 
Cowper, Milton, Hogg, Shakspeare, &c. Vessel saved by 
the song of an insect of this order. Notes of the field 
cricket. Its sense of hearing ; illustrative extracts from 



CONTENTS. XI 

Hogg, &c. How the sound is produced. Grasshoppers, &c. 
used as food. The insect locust not mentioned by Shak- 
speare. Number of British species. Endurance of hun- 
ger by the cricket and the cockroach. Structure of the 
feet of the house-cricket. Origin of the cuckoo-spit. 
The Tettix of the ancients ; its powers of song. Verses 
addressed to the Cicada by Anacreon . . page 95 

LETTER VIII. 

HYMENOPTERA. 

■ The honey-bees." Bees said to be found in a dead body. The 
Queen-bee. Slaughter of the drones. Inaccuracy in 
Shakspeare and Milton. Humming of bees described by 
several British poets. The humble-bee. Hazlitt's re- 
mark on "the bag o' the bee." Wax; how secreted. 
Not collected by the bees, as stated by Shakspeare. Com- 
position of sealing wax. Honey ; mentioned both in a 
literal and a metaphorical sense. Structure of the combs. 
Sting of the bee. Practice of destroying bees to obtain 
the honey; described by Thomson. How it may be 
avoided. Homeward flight of bees. Why they frequent 
tho sea- coast. Prices paid for honey-comb. Bees of 
Hymettus. The bee in North America considered as a 
harbinger of the white man. Conduct of a colony of 
English bees when transported to Waterford. Wasps ; 
their rapacity. They are paper-makers. Nests of the 
native and of foreign species. Irritability of wasps. They 
"rob bee-hives." Punishment described by Autolycus. 
The Ant. Its wings; when laid aside. Described as 
" exceeding wise ;" and " provident of future." How the 



Xll CONTENTS. 

erroneous opinon, that it stores up food, originated. Beauti- 
ful description by Wordsworth. But once mentioned by 
Shakspeare. Its connection with the aphides. The 
honey-dew. Former opinions and present knowledge 
respecting its origin .... page 113 

LETTER IX. 

LEPIDOPTERA. 

Beauty and variety of the insects belonging to this order 
Their "mealy wings." Universal diffusion. Found at all 
seasons. Ideas of the ancients respecting the butterfly. 
Notice of the insect by several British poets. Its pur- 
suit by boys. The brimstone butterfly. Vision in the 
silver-streak butterfly. Some species extremely local. 
Enumeration of those found in the neighbourhood of 
Belfast. Some " gilded butterflies" widely diffused. — 
Sphinxes found in this vicinity. The word " moth," how 
used by Shakspeare. Size of some species. Enumeration 
of the most conspicuous. The puss-moth ; injury it occa- 
sioned. Grass-moths taken by a bird. Night-flying in- 
sects attracted by a light. Leaf-mining caterpillars. The 
gratification derivable from trifling objects, a high re- 
commendation to the study of Entomology. Sensation in 
the Lepidoptera not analogous to that sense in man. Num- 
ber of eggs deposited by the ghost-moth . . 147 

LETTER X. 

DIPTERA AND APHANIPTERA. 

Distinguishing characteristics of the Diptera. Flesh-flies ; 
their larvae or maggots. Utility of these flies. Their 



COXTEXTS. XU1 

fecundity. Their changes of colour when first disclosed 
from the chrysalis. Their diffusion. The blue-bottle fly. 
Cruelty to insects reproved. Diminutive size of some of 
the Diptera. Their humming noticed by Wordsworth. 
Their aerial dances. Their number in summer. Some 
observed in winter. Clouds of flies in January, 1836. 
Multitudes on grass. The fly used as an object of com- 
parison by the poets. Mentioned in the Classics. An- 
noyance it occasions. Italian mode of excluding the 
house-fly. Common gnat {Culex pipiens) supposed to be 
identical with the mosquito. The mosquito found in all 
parts of the world. Torment occasioned by it. "The 
Brize" (QZstrus bovis). Sufferings endured from it by 
cattle. Noticed by Virgil. " Bots." " Begnawn with 
the bots." Disputed identity of the Oistros of the an- 
cients with the CEstrus of Linnaeus. " Flies at St. Bartho- 
lomew-tide, blind though they have their eyes ;" mean- 
ing of the passage. Examples of the frequent mention of 
the flea by Shakspeare .... page 175 

LETTER XI. 

ARACHNOIDA. 

Spiders not classed with insects. Their peculiar structure. 
Variety of modes in which they capture their prey. " The 
labouring spider." " Bottled spider." Fragility of the 
thread. Its complicated structure. Used as a styptic and 
a soporific. Web of the house and garden spiders. — 
Shakspeare aware of the different habits of some tribes. 
"Long-legged spinners." Poison possessed by spiders. 
Affection of the female spider for her young. The gos- 
samer mentioned by Spencer and Thomson erroneously. 



XIV CONTENTS. 

Introduced by Shakspeare and Hogg. Theories respecting 
its emission. Is found at all seasons. Verses suggested 
by its appearance when covered with hoar-frost page 207 

LETTER XII. 

CONCLUDING EPISTLE. 

Notices of some insects not mentioned by Shakspeare. The 
Ichneumonidae ; their opposition and importance. Dragon- 
flies. Their rapacious habits. Poetical notice of them as 
Damsel flies. Attracted by peculiar colours. Habitats of 
two species mentioned. Number of lenses in the eye. 
Mask of the larva. Descent of the parent fly into the 
water, when about to deposit her eggs. Analogous fact 
observed in a species of Phryganea. Caddis-worms. 
Variety of material employed in the structure of then- 
cases. Shells thus employed. Ingenious defence ; sub- 
stitute for the usual grating. The great water-beetle 
{Dytieus marginalis). Its flight, and its food. The water- 
scorpion {Nepa cinerea). The boat-fly (Notonecta glauca). 
Hydrometridae. Entomology makes every pool of water 
attractive. Appearance of insects at irregular intervals. 
One example of this furnished by a moth (Plusiafestucee). 
Numbers of a gnat (Chironomus virescens), in 1832. Of 
the cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris) in 1835. Its ravages 
in 1688. Failure of parsley in 1830-31 ; its growth in 
1832. Recognition of certain insects in unexpected 
situations. Examples — Pentatoma rufipes in Belfast ; 
Cossomcs Tardii at Cranmore ; a burying beetle (Necro- 
phorus mortuorum) on a high mountain. Mutual depend- 
ence of the sciences on each other. Conclusion . 225 



CONTEXTS. XV 

APPENDIX. 

INJURIES OCCASIONED BY INSECTS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF 
IRELAND. 

Tipula tritici destructive to wheat ; C. bicolor to the Veronica 
chamcedrys. Apple-tree grafts destroyed by Otiorhynchus nota- 
tus, and flowers by 0. vastator and ligustici. The wire-worm 
injurious to grass. Crop of flax nearly destroyed by Haltica 
paroula, in county Down. Defoliation of trees by a caterpillar 
in "Wicklow. Trees destroyed by the goat-moth (Cosms liyni- 
perda) near Portarlington. Ravages of various species of 
Yponomeuta. Clover and grass injured by the larvae of the 
Tipula. The gooseberry saw-fly (Nemalus ribesii) . page 257 







The bounteous bus-wife, nature, on each bush 
LavB her full me3s before you." 

TIMON OP ATHENS, AOT TV. 



Your letter, my dear Arnold, lias been received. 
It is but two months since you wrote to me of your 
arrival at your new* habitation — the kindness of your 
reception, the dehghtful situation of the village, and 
the hospitality of your future parishioners ; but a 
change seems to have passed over your spirit, to have 
" overcome " you "like a summer cloud," and has 
excited, I must confess, my " special wonder." You 
do not write in that tone which bespeaks a healthy ac- 



2 ENNUI AND ITS ORIGIN. 

tivity of mind and body. A little querulousness (you 
must excuse the expression) is now and then apparent; 
and you resemble the mariner who sighs to exchange 
the apathy of the calm, for the excitement of the gale, 
or even the perils of the storm. This seemed to me 
" passing strange ;" but one phrase in your letter 
has enabled me to solve the enigma. While pursuing 
your studies in the house, you appear happy — while 
there you find your library " a dukedom large enough " 
— while executing those missions of " peace and good 
will to man " which the exercise of your profession 
requires, you are all I could wish my friend to be ; 
but when you tell me that there are moments in your 
rambles in which you are tempted to envy the activity 
of the husbandman, or the ardour of the sportsman, I 
strongly suspect the mind is in some degree " dis- 
eased;" something is wanting, and that something 
seems to be simply this : The husbandman takes a 
deep interest in the fluctuations of the weather, and 
the revolutions of the seasons. " The seed-time and 
harvest" are indicated by a thousand circumstances, 
which he is prompt to notice ; these modify his labour 
and influence its result. The sportsman, in like man- 
ner, finds his interest aroused by a thousand varying 
phenomena: the mildness, or the severity of the winter; 
a late or an early spring ; a dry or rainy summer, all 
produce certain results upon the objects of his pursuit, 



THE HUSBANDMAN AND SPORTSMAN. 3 

and require a corresponding variation in his procedure. 
The piercing note of the wild swan, high in the frosty- 
heavens, and the " booming " of the bittern from the 
" sedgy shallow," arouse his attention and awaken 
his destructive energies to action. Husbandman and 
sportsman are alike in one respect, — they both take 
a deep and active interest in some of the phenomena 
of nature ; but by these phenomena you are compara- 
tively unmoved. They do not furnish tou with 
employment. You pay a passing tribute to the chaste 
beauty of the snowdrop, or to the matin song of the 
sky-lark, and pursue your path without that degree 
of interest being excited, which suggests something 
to be done, some difficulty to be surmounted, or some 
information to be acquired. You observe them, but 
they do not influence your pursuits — you see them, 
but you seek not to investigate the mechanism of the 
one, or the habits of the other. 

I do believe, that if the true cause of your dis- 
satisfaction were explored, it would be found to 
spring from what I consider a radical error in the 
system of education pursued in our universities. You 
have passed through the usual course with honour — 
you have on many occasions won " golden opinions 
from all sorts of people," and yet I do venture to 
assert that the defects in this very course of educa- 
tion, are the primary causes of your present discon- 

b 2 



4 DEFECTS OF EDUCATION. 

tent. Take one of those graduates who have been 
most distinguished ; ask him concerning an event in 
the ancient history of the world, the translation of 
an admired passage in Anacreon, or the connection of 
classic fable and historic truth, and in all probability 
your questions will be answered. Inquire how the 
knowledge of mathematics gives new views of the 
sublime science of astronomy, and you will receive 
the information you demand. Request an exposition 
of some particular theory in metaphysics, and your 
desire may still be gratified. But ask the same 
student to describe the functions or uses of some 
common plant, or insect, — one which he sees every 
day, with which he has been familiar from childhood, 
and he will be unable to answer, nay, most likely, 
unable to tell its name. 

This is the radical error in university education. 
Its votaries are conversant with books, not with 
nature ; or, as it has been quaintly expressed, " they 
view nature through the spectacles of books." With 
the works which form the most lasting monuments 
of the talents of man, they are familiar ; of those 
nobler works which bear the visible impress of the 
Deity, they are profoundly ignorant. 

I have no desire that you should become either a 
farmer or a sportsman ; but with your mental powers 
and habits of observation, I should rejoice, indeed, 



THE NATURALIST. O 

to see you become a naturalist ; not one of that kind 
who suppose a knowledge of nature to consist in a 
knowledge of the terms which have been applied to 
her works, or of the sections into which they have 
been divided ; but one who studies the things them- 
selves, and gives to classification its proper functions, 
namely, that of designating correctly the individual 
objects of his inquiry. Such a man will not look with 
wonder on any thing that is strange, merely because 
to him it is new or uncommon, neither will he regard 
with indifference things which are equally wonderful, 
because he sees them daily around him. This is not the 
fitting disposition of a naturalist, nor is its indulgence 
calculated to bring home the love of nature to the 
thoughts and affections of men, or furnish that series 
of pleasurable emotions, which the proper knowledge 
of the objects by which we are surrounded would so 
incessantly afford. In its true and legitimate exercise, 
the knowledge of natural history unveils to its votary 
" gems hidden from the world beside," and even her 
wildest and most uncultivated scenes — 

" The desert, forest, cavern, breaker's foam, 
Are unto him companionship." 

To any man, but more especially to one of your 
profession, the mental effects of such pursuits are of 
the very highest importance, and I am glad, on this 
point, to fortify my own opinion by the words of 



6 OBJECTS OF INQUIRY. 

Archdeacon Paley : — " In a moral view I shall not, I 
believe, be contradicted when I say, that if one train 
of thinking be more desirable than another, it is that 
which regards the phenomena of nature with a constant 
reference to a supreme, intelligent author." Nor can 
the study be considered as unworthy of our notice, 
when we are told of Solomon, that he "spake of 
trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even 
unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall ; he 
spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping 
things, and of fishes." 

Prior, however, to the study of these details, our 
attention must be directed, and to a certain extent 
it is irresistibly impelled, to the contemplation of the 
periodical changes which the aspect of the external 
world is ever undergoing. 

" the seasons come, 



And pass like shadows to their viewless home, 
And come again, and vanish." 

Each of them exhibits distinct and characteristic 
features, and brings attractions and motives for exer- 
tion peculiarly its own. And these changes are not 
confined to inanimate nature ; for to a reflective mind, 
which scans with attention these evanescent trains of 
thought and feeling, it is interesting to remark how 
very different the same man is at different seasons. 
For instance, your ideas of pleasure in December and 



PLEASURE OF THE STUDY. 1 

June are no doubt as completely distinct, nay, as much 
contrasted, as would be those of different individuals 
living in distant regions. Should any one doubt this, 
let him compare his emotions during a morning walk 
in spring with those in a summer noon, when he 
stretches "his listless length" under some "■ nodding 
beech," or with those he experiences when he draws 
his chair closer to the fire on Christmas eve. To this 
fertile field for observation, I solicit your attention : 
it has one advantage over most other subjects of 
inquiry, that you have ever the materials for its 
prosecution within you and around you. 

The pursuit I more especially recommend, namely, 
the study of Natural History, in its widest signification, 
would, I am persuaded, be to you, my dear Arnold, a 
source of gratification, " ever charming," yet " ever 
new." But I will candidly own I am not altogether 
disinterested, and that I am anxious to procure your 
co-operation and assistance in a project which I yet 
hope to accomplish. I am anxious to ascertain if poetry 
and natural history might not " each give to each a 
double charm " — if poetry might not lend " thoughts 
that breathe, and words that burn," to declare the 
wonders that natural history unfolds. Reality, in this 
case, is more wonderful than fiction ; yet the reality 
is not brought home to the minds and hearts of men, 
as it would be if arrayed in the glowing garb of 



8 THE POETRY OF NATURE. 

poetry : a fact, when "married to immortal verse," 
would be "one entire and perfect chrysolite," and 
remain for ever in the mind, " unmixed with baser 
matter. "And what would poetry not gain, if access 
were afforded to this new and almost unopened 
mine ? The riches of the garden of Aladdin would fade 
before the splendour of her new dominions. Besides, 
you must recollect, that poetry is so pleasing a vehicle 
for the expression of thought; so fascinating a medium 
for the inculcation of a particular feeling or idea, 
that it becomes a most powerful agent either in dis- 
seminating truth, or in perpetuating falsehood. How 
very desirable would it be if every poet were at the 
same time a naturalist. Many depict, and depict 
most truly, some of the attractive objects which Na- 
ture, as if to win us to herself, has placed on our 
right hand and on our left ; but seldom have they 
done so without an intermixture of error, and too 
often do we find that fancy takes the place of observa- 
tion. It would become, therefore, a curious and 
pleasing subject of inquiry to ascertain to what ex- 
tent one of our most admired poets had faithfully 
arrayed in the rich garniture of his verse, the pheno- 
mena which he himself had seen, or how far he had 
preserved there the errors of preceding writers. 

This inquiry prompted me to read again the 
plays of Shakspeare. I read them, however, not to 



SHAKSPEARE " THE POET OF NATURE. 9 

analyze one of the characters, to criticise the struc- 
ture, or unfold the beauties of a drama, but to ascer- 
tain what notices of natural objects they con- 
tained. I may, perhaps, have been influenced in 
my selection of Shakspeare's Works by the opinion 
which Dr. Johnson has expressed in his celebrated 
preface. After applying to Shakspeare the epithet 
of " the Poet of Nature," he remarks, " His attention 
was not confined to the actions of men ; he was an 
exact surveyor of the inanimate world ; his descrip- 
tions have always some peculiarity, gathered by con- 
templating things as they really exist ; whether life 
or nature be his subject, Shakspeare shows plainly 
that he has seen with his own eyes. He gives the 
image which he receives, not weakened or distorted 
by the intervention of any other mind ; the ignorant 
feel his representations to be just, and the learned 
see that they are complete." But I was still more 
guided in my choice by the testimony of my friend 
the late John Templeton, Esq., that " the works of 
Shakspeare evince a surprising power of accurate 
observation," and he added, although I may not 
quote his words correctly, " that while Milton and 
the other poets had strung together in their descrip- 
tions the blossoms of spring and the flowers of sum- 
mer, Shakspeare has placed in one group those only 
which may be found in bloom at the same time. 



10 ILLUSTRATIVE EXTRACTS. 

His defects are those of the age in which he lived ; 

the beauty and truth of his pictures are his own." 

To show the justness of this remark, only look at 

the enumeration of flowers in Milton's Lycidas, and 

that of Shakspeare in the Winter's Tale. In the 

former we have, among " vernal flowers," many of 

those which are the offspring of Midsummer. The 

musk-rose, the woodbine, and the amaranthus of a 

still more advanced season, are grouped with the 

daffodil, the primrose, and the violet of early spring. 

* Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, 
The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine, 
The white pink, and the pansy freak'd with jet, 
The glowing violet, 

The musk-rose, and the well attired woodbine, 
"With cowslips wan, that hang the pensive head, 
And every flower that sad embroidery wears ; 
Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, 
And daffodillies fill their cups with tears, 
To strew the laureat hearse where Lycid lies." 

In the Winter's Tale, Perdita presents the " flowers 

of winter, rosemary and rue," to her reverend guests ; 

" to men of middle age," are given the " flowers of 

middle summer." 

" Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram, 
The marigold, that goes to bed with the sun, 
And with him rises weeping." — Act IV. Sc. 3. 

When she addresses her " fairest friend," her words 
are 

" I would I had some flowers o' the spring, that might 
Become your time of day ! " 



NATURAL OBJECTS NOTICED. 11 

and "yours and yours," she continues, as she ad- 
dresses those of a more advanced age ; and in her 
invocation 

" O Proserpina 
For the flowers now, that, frighted, thou let'st fall 
From Dis's waggon "— 

she retains the same order, beginning with the daffo- 
dil, and ending with the fleur-de-lis : 

" daffodils, 
That come before the swallow dares, and take 
The winds of March with beauty— violets, dim, 
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, 
Or Cytherea's breath ; pale primroses, 
That die unmarried ere they can behold 
Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady 
Most incident to maids ; bold oxslips, and 
The crown imperial ; lilies of all kinds, 
The fleur-de-lis being one !" 

I was thus led to examine the plays of Shakspeare 
with respect to the notices of natural objects which 
they contain, and I soon found that these notices 
were much more numerous than I had expected. I 
transcribed the passages containing them, under the 
several heads which naturalists have adopted in their 
classifications, and found, to my surprise, that they 
occupied one hundred closely written pages of letter 
paper. Of these, twenty-two pages related to the 
mammalia ; sixteen to birds ; nine to reptiles and 
fishes ; two to shells and minerals ; nine to insects ; 
thirteen to trees, flowers, and fruits ; and twenty- 



12 MATERIALS FOR INVESTIGATION. 

nine to those ever-varying features, which mark the 
progress of the seasons, or depict some of the count- 
less phenomena of nature. What ample materials 
for investigation those extracts would afford ! and 
their elucidation would be highly interesting, for it 
would place in juxta-position the state of natural 
science now, and at the vaunted era of Queen 
Elizabeth. 

In my next letter, I shall mention to which of its 
several branches I wish first to call your attention, 
and lay before you some of the advantages arising 
from the pursuit. 





• In Nature's infinite book of secrecy 
A little I can read." 

ANTOiJZ AND CLEOPATRA, ACT I. SC 



I must apologize, my dear friend, for having al- 
lowed some days to elapse without resuming the 
subject introduced in my last letter ; but the avoca- 
tions of business will occasionally interpose, in the 
performance of many of the offices of friendship. 
Occupied as I at present am, it is but seldom that 
I can snatch a few consecutive hours, to pay my 
homage to literature or to science. Trifling as my 
acquisitions in either may be, they are still sufficient 



14 THE STUDY OF NATURE PROPOSED. 

to keep alive the taste for both ; and, consequently, 
if future years should bring with them a larger 
portion of leisure, I hope and trust they will be 
unaccompanied with that tcedium, vita, which too 
often destroys the anticipated happiness of the man 
of business. The object of my attention, in those 
hours which are stolen from the bustle of the world, 
has of late been natural history ; and I can safely 
affirm that it has afforded a tranquillising, contented, 
and invigorating spirit, when both mind and body 
have been fatigued with the unremitting exertions 
which business occasionally demands. To you, who 
want occupation, the study would produce a different, 
but equally beneficial result. It would stimulate to 
activity faculties which now lie dormant, and rouse 
to pleasurable exertion, powers which languish for 
want of a proper stimulus. The particular branch 
of natural history to which I have lately given my 
attention, has been that which treats of the various 
tribes of insects ; or, to use a more concise and more 
scientific expression, Entomology. My progress 
has not been so considerable as to give me that 
knowledge of specific distinctions, which one who 
lays claim to the title of an entomologist should 
possess ; but it has been sufficient to teach me the 
principal divisions of the science, and to make me 
acquainted with the most obvious peculiarities in 



ENTOMOLOGY. 15 

habit, by which many insect tribes are distinguished. 
I have, I must own, been more anxious to learn 
something of their habits, than of their classification ; 
and although I have commenced forming a small 
collection to illustrate the latter, I value it only as 
serving to elucidate the former. You will see from 
this statement, that I am a lover of entomology, 
rather than an entomologist. Humble as this appel- 
lation may be, it is one which I must for, perhaps, a 
considerable time, be contented to retain. Its low- 
liness has not, however, prevented me from enjoying 
many pleasing trains of thought, excited by the 
pursuit — many happy feelings of novelty and wonder ; 
and at all seasons the study has furnished me with 
something for observation. I am most anxious, 
therefore, my dear Arnold, that the pleasure I have 
felt, you should experience ; and although I may be 
a guide very imperfectly acquainted with the paths 
I propose to traverse, I shall be delighted to point 
out to you the most important landmarks, and 
indicate the existence of wild glens and retiring 
valleys which you may yourself explore. 

We are all too apt to associate ideas of importance 
with the possession of corporeal bulk, and to regard 
as trifling all those animals which are diminutive in 
size. This may be one reason why the study of 
entomology is comparatively of modern date ; for, so 



16 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 

strong and so general is this prejudice, that he who 
devoted his days to observing the habits and economy 
of insects, would have been regarded as a Weak and 
frivolous mortal — as a busy and unprofitable idler, 
and unworthy to rank with men who were engaged 
in more bustling occupations. A wiser and more 
philosophical spirit has now arisen, and anything, 
however minute, which God has been pleased to 
create, is no longer deemed unworthy of man to 
study. " The beauties of the wilderness are His," 
and the leafy monarch of the forest, the lowly and 
fragile flower, the leviathan with his plated mail, and 
each tiny wing that flutters in the sunbeam, are but 
so many varied manifestations of the same Almighty 
Power. To you, therefore, the study of insects will 
have many attractions, for few are better calculated 
than yourself 

" To trace in nature's most minute design 
The signature and stamp of power divine ; 
The shapely limb, and lubricated joint, 
Within the small dimensions of a point; " 

and to feel the justice of Burke's observation, that 
we cannot, in the effect on the mind, distinguish the 
extreme of littleness from the vast itself. As, how- 
ever, the state of mind which the feeling of surprise 
creates, or the sense of the sublime occasions, is in 
its very nature transitory, though delightful, I would 



FORM AND COLOUR OF INSECTS. 17 

not, on the present occasion, lay much stress upon 
this recommendation. I would rather allow the 
study to win you to itself, by the permanence of the 
agreeable ideas it is calculated to excite. One 
source of these ideas is the form and the colouring 
of insects : and any one who attempts to describe 
such characteristics, may exclaim, as Thomson has 
done of the flowers of spring, 

" Oh ! what can language do ! " 

Kirby and Spence, with that enthusiasm which 
their knowledge of the subject both creates and 
justifies, remark, " To these, her valued miniatures, 
Nature has given the most delicate touch and highest 
finish of her pencil. Numbers she has armed with 
glittering mail, which reflects a lustre like that of 
burnished metals ; in others she lights up the 
dazzling radiance of polished gems. Some she has 
decked with what looks like liquid drops or plates of 
gold or silver, or with scales or pile, which mimic 
the colour and emit the ray of the same precious 
metals." 

"Their colours also are not evanescent and fugi- 
tive, but fixed and durable, surviving their subject, 
and -adorning it as much after death as they did 
when it was alive." In this respect the Entomologist 
possesses an advantage over most of his brother natu- 



18 ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY. 

ralists. The loveliest rose that ever unfolded her 
petals to the skies of June, the sweetest violet that 
ever yielded her fragrance to the wooing breath of 
April, are alike reft of their beauty, when transferred 
to the hortus siccus of the botanist. The ornitholo- 
gist may obtain for his herons, his swans, and his 
falcons, their respective attitudes, but he must do so 
at considerable cost, and requires a range of apart- 
ments for their display and classification. The speci- 
mens of the mineralogist are frequently of consider- 
able bulk and weight, and require a corresponding 
space for their arrangement. The Entomologist, on 
the contrary, can, in a single drawer of moderate 
dimensions, preserve hundreds of insects, with all the 
colouring and attitudes of life. Yet it is not because 
of their colours, though rich ; or their forms, though 
varied ; or both, though beautiful, that I recommend 
them to your notice. As beings endued with life, they 
bave higher claims on your attention. Morning, 
noon, evening, and night, has each its own race of 
happy insects ; they flit m the warm sunbeam of 
summer, and desert not the icy mantle of winter. 

Another reason why some attention should be 
given to the study of insects, is the greatness of 
their numbers, compared with that of the other tribes 
of animated beings. The mammalia, birds, fishes, 
and reptiles, at present known, and the mollusca, 



NUMBER OF SPECIES. 19 

zoophytes, and microscopic animalcules, described 
by naturalists, amount altogether to about twenty- 
five thousand species. The Count Dejean has cata- 
logued more than twenty thousand coleopterous in- 
sects alone. Stephens describes ten thousand British 
species ; and those now arranged and named in the 
Royal Cabinet, at Paris, amount of themselves to 
above twenty-seven thousand,* a number greater 
than all the other varieties of animal life, taken 
together, with which we are at present acquainted. 
If to this were added those which the collection at 
Paris does not possess, but which other cabinets 
contain, those named in manuscripts scattered 
through different countries in Europe, and the new 
genera which are daily made known to us, both in 
the east and in the west ; the number of species 
already known could not be less than fifty thousand ! 
But this number, great as it may appear, is trifling 
compared with the myriads with which we are as 
yet unacquainted, but whose existence is rendered 
more than probable by the tribes which the accurate 
investigation of any district, however limited, is 
continually unfolding to our view. Kirby and Spence, 
in their admirable " Introduction to Entomology," 



* This estimate of the number of known species was made some 
years ago, when the letters were first written : the numbers have been 
greatly increased during the last few years. 

c 2 



20 DESTRUCTIVE POWERS OF INSECTS. 

agree with Mr. M'Leay in calculating the existing 
number of species at four hundred thousand ! * 

Even here the treasures of the Entomologist are not 
exhausted. The geologist finds in shale the im- 
pressions of insects, stamped on the yielding surface 
of the mineral, and there presenting their correct 
and enduring portraiture. In amber he discovers 
insects in the very attitudes of life, and of species 
which have long since become extinct. These repre- 
sentatives of a former insect world are to the Ento- 
mologist what the skeletons and ornaments of Pompeii 
would be to the antiquarian, or fossil fishes to the 
ichthyologist. They are the records of another era, 
unfolded for our study. 

We must recollect also, that an accurate knowledge 
of the habits and economy of insects is of considerable 
importance to the comfort, and to the security of 
man. Though each may individually be regarded as 
insignificant, their numbers compensate for their di- 
minutive size, and thus banded together, they become 
absolutely irresistible. "Wilson, in his " American 
Ornithology," says, " Would it be believed that the 
larvae of an insect or fly, no larger than a grain of 
rice, should silently and in one season destroy some 
thousand acres of pine trees, many of them from two 
to three feet in diameter, and a hundred and fifty 

* Introduction to Entomology, vol. iv. p. 476. 



DESTRUCTIVE POWERS OF INSECTS. 



21 



feet in height ? In some places the whole woods, 
as far as you can see around you, are dead ; — stripped 
of their bark, their wintry-looking arms and bare 
trunks bleaching in the sun, and tumbling in ruins 
before every blast." In tropical countries the white 




Queen of the White Ant in the winged state, and filled with eggs. 

ants are so voracious that, according to Smeathman, 
" the total destruction of deserted towns is so 
effectually completed, that in two or three years a 
thick wood fills the space." Humboldt states that, 
as they devour paper and parchment, many provinces 
of Spanish America cannot in consequence shew a 
written document of a hundred years' existence, and 
he justly inquires, " What developement can the 
civilization of a people assume, if there be nothing 
to connect the present with the past, — if the de- 



22 DEVASTATIONS OF THE APHIDES. 

positories of human knowledge must be constantly- 
renewed, — if the monuments of human genius and 
wisdom cannot be transmitted to posterity." The 
very name of the locust calls up ideas of desolation 
and famine. " The land is as the garden of Eden 
before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness." 
From this awful pest we are in this country happily 
free, but we are exposed to the attacks of many- 
others, which, at times, are scarcely less formidable. 
The turnip fly and the wire-worm have often ren- 




Turnip Fly. 

dered vain the hopes and the labours of the farmer. 
Crops of grain have been destroyed, fruit trees 
blighted, and plantations overthrown, by other tribes 
of these Lilliputian devastators. One of the Aphi- 
des appears occasionally in such multitudes, that 
Thomson has thus introduced it into his description 
of the phenomena of spring ;— 

" For oft, engender'd by the hazy North, 
Myriads on myriads, insect armies warp 



BENEFITS CONFERRED BY INSECTS. 23 

Keen in the poison'd breeze ; and wasteful eat, 
Through buds and bark, into the blacken'd core, 
Their eager way. A feeble race ! yet oft 
The sacred sons of vengeance, on whose course 
Corrosive Famine waits, and kills the year." 

With the exception of their not being " engendered 
by the hazy North," but produced, like all other 
insects, from eggs previously deposited, the descrip- 
tion of the poet is perfectly correct. A writer in 
the Entomological Magazine, (No. iii. p. 221,) con- 
cludes an account of the habits of another species of 
insect, the Aphis hamuli, one which preys upon the 
hop plant, in the following words: — "From this it 
will appear that in duty alone, a little insignificant 
looking fly has a control over four hundred and 
fifty thousand pounds annual income to the British 
Treasuiy ; and, supposing the hop grounds of Eng- 
land capable of paying this duty annually, which 
they certainly are, it is very manifest that, in 1825, 
these creatures were the means of robbing the 
Treasury of four hundred and twenty-six thousand 
pounds." 

The advantages which insects produce are, how- 
ever, more important than the injuries they occasion. 
To multitudes of our "little trooping birds" they 
supply food, and that to an extent that no one would 
at first suppose possible ; for it has been calculated, 
that a single pair of sparrows having young to main- 



24 



BENEFITS CONFERRED BY INSECTS. 



tain, will destroy three thousand three hundred and 
sixty caterpillars in a week. 

To fishes they are of equal importance, as I had 
myself on one occasion an opportunity of observing, 
at Lough Beg, a small lake through which the river 
Bann flows in its course to the sea. As we were 
crossing in a boat from the main land to Church Island, 
the spot where the celebrated Jeremy Taylor penned 
many of his most eloquent productions, a sudden 
gust of wind arose, accompanied by heavy rain, and 
precipitated into the water multitudes of the day- 
fly {Ephemera vulgata), which had been sporting over 




Larva, Pupa, and Imago of Ephemera vulgata. 

the lake. So great was their number, that as we 
rowed rapidly forward, we could not, for the space 
of fifteen minutes, during which we were every 
instant changing our position, discover two square 



ADVANTAGES TO MAN. 



25 



feet on the surface of the water, on which there was 
not at least one of these flies, and not unfrequently 
there were eight, ten, or twelve, in that extent of 
superficies. On a subsequent occasion, I noticed a 
mass of two-winged flies {Tipulidcs, fyc), some inches 




Cecidomyia destructor, and tritici, with Larva, all feeding. 

in thickness, cast upon the beach of Lough Weagh, 
not far from the town of Antrim. 

To " man, proud man," they bring rich and 
numerous offerings. The gall of the oak, which, 




Oak Apple, Gall, and CytiijK quercus folii. 

when converted into ink, " speeds the soft intercourse 



26 ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY. 

from pole to pole," and allows the philosopher to 
transmit his discoveries to future ages, is only the 
production of an insect. Honey, which from the 
earliest times has been the emblem of all that is most 
grateful to the palate, is another tribute from the 
insect world. The bright dye of the cochineal is 
supplied by an insect ; and silk, the use of which is 
still more widely diffused, is, perhaps, the most ex- 
traordinary existing example, of the benefits derived 
by man from the labours of the insect tribes. 

I hope enough has now been adduced to show that 
the study of Entomology should not, by any reflective 
mind, be regarded as frivolous or degrading, and that 
if we would either derive advantage or escape injury 
from insects, a knowledge of their habits and economy 
is alike indispensable. 










* 



>1 




■ Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there. 
That kills and pains not ? " 

iSTOBI AND CLEOPATKA, AOT V. t 



I shall now, my dear Arnold, in this and in my 
subsequent letters, bring before you some of the par- 
ticulars relative to the natural history of those insects 
mentioned in Shakspeare's plays. From the writings 
of eminent entomologists, or from extracts from works 
which are not generally accessible to the inhabitants 
of a provincial town, I have at various times received 
much of the information they may contain. In some 
instances I have copied in my note book the passage 
in which any remarkable fact was embodied. These 



28 THE SUBJECT PROPOSED. 

extracts are not numerous, and as they may perhaps 
prove interesting, I shall be glad to transmit them to 
you in the words of their respective authors. It has 
sometimes been in my power to verify those state- 
ments by my own observations, and occasionally, 
although very rarely, to add something to the know- 
ledge they convey ; but my great object will be to 
point out how the remarks of the Poet are borne out 
by the discoveries of modern science. 

If these letters induce you to examine the facts for 
yourself, and to fill up those blanks which I shall 
occasionally indicate, I shall rejoice at having been 
the humble instrument of " a consummation" so 
" devoutly to be wished." Should the important 
avocation in which we are both engaged permit us 
to enter together on the natural history of the quadru- 
peds, the birds, or the plants which Shakspeare has 
dignified by his magic touch, it would be delightful 
to reciprocate with each other the information we 
might respectively obtain, and communicate our ob- 
servations on a subject of common interest to both. 
But I must own that "the wish is father to that 
thought," for, situated as I am, it is scarcely pos- 
sible for me to take a fair proportion of the exer- 
tion necessary for such an object. You, however, 
are so differently circumstanced, that you may hope 
to effect that, which I am able only to desire. Of 



shakspeare's natural history. 29 

two things I am quite certain — that a knowledge of 
the Natural History of Shakspeare's Plays would 
increase the pleasure we all experience in reading 
those unrivalled productions ; and that to the in- 
quirer, the pursuit would be replete with interest. 
He would tread a path of softest verdure ; he would 
behold a brighter sky , he would breathe a more balmy 
atmosphere, and might well say, like Caliban, while 
escorting the mariners under the unseen guidance of 
Ariel, 



[ Tlie isle is full of noises, 



Sounds, and sweet airs ; that give delight, and hurt not." 

Tempest, Act III. Sc. II. 

That the subject on which I am now about to enter 
may be proceeded with in regular order, it is better 
" to begin with the beginning :" I shall, therefore, in 
my present letter, confine myself to some observations 
on insects, in their imperfect or immature state. 

We find that the Prince of Denmark, the reflective 
and philosophical Hamlet, employs on one occasion 
the words, " If the sun breeds maggots in a dead 
dog," {Act I. Scene II.) ; and he uses them in a man- 
ner that shows he did not question the truth of the 
position. Let it not surprise you, that a prince of 
mental powers sufficient to descant upon "this 
goodly frame the earth," and to utter the sublime 
apostrophe, " What a piece of work is man !" should 
adopt an opinion so erroneous. It was the universal 



30 



TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



belief of the age in which Shakspeare lived ; and it 
was not until near the conclusion of the sixteenth 
century, that it was proved by the experiments of 
Redi to be utterly groundless. This forms one 
example of the progress of human knowledge in 
destroying " that labyrinth of idle fancies and unsup- 
ported fables, which, entangled with one another like 
a Gordian knot, have even to this day obscured 
the beautiful simplicity of this part of Natural 
History."* 

The vertebrate animals by which we are surrounded 
retain through life, with some variations in size and 
colouring, very nearly the same form they had at 




Chrysalis and Caterpillar of the Magpie Moth. 

their birth. Insects, on the contrary, have their 
parts and powers progressively developed, and pass 

* Swammerdam, Book of Nature, p. 223. 



CATERPILLARS. 31 

in general through four distinct stages of existence. 
They are first contained in eggs deposited by the 
parent. They then become active and rapacious, 
and in this state some tribes are known by the com- 
mon names of maggots, grubs, or caterpillars, all of 
which are included by naturalists in the term larvae. 
Every one is familiar with their appearance, and 
few unacquainted with their destructive powers. 
They have furnished Shakspeare on many occasions 
with appropriate metaphors. Thus the creatures of 
Richard are termed by Bolingbroke " the caterpillars 
of the Commonwealth," (King Richard II., Act II. 
Sc. IV.), and the Duke of York's reflection on the 
destruction of his hopes, is, 

" Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud, 
And caterpillars eat my leaves away." 

.Second Part Henry VI., Act III. Sc. I. 

" False caterpillars " is the epithet bestowed by 
Jack Cade and his " ragged multitude " on their 
opponents ; but never is the image employed in a 
manner more just, and yet more melancholy, than 
when in King Richard II. the gardener enters into 
a colloquy with his attendant on the state of the 
kingdom, while the queen, who had entered " to 
drive away the heavy thoughts of care," becomes a 
concealed listener to their discourse. Instead of 



32 CHRYSALIS STATE OF INSECTS. 

silently executing the directions of his superior to 

"Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays," 
the servant inquires — 

" Why should we in the compass of a pale 
Keep law, and form, and due proportion, 
Shewing, as in a model, our firm state ; 
When our sea-walled garden, the whole land 
Is full of weeds ; her fairest flowers choked up, 
Her fruit trees all unpruned, her hedges ruin'd, 
Her knots disorder'd, and her wholesome herbs 
Swarming with caterpillars ? "—Act III. Sc. IV. 

The next state of insects is the Pupa, or Chrysalis, 
in which they assume very different forms and diver- 
sified habits. Some are lively and active, as the 
crickets and cockroaches, which are found in our 
kitchens. Others are enveloped in a peculiar cover- 
ing, called a cocoon, formed for the occasion, and 
composed of leaves, of wood, or of silk. Now all 
appearance of vitality is lost, until at its appointed 
time the enclosed insect bursts its sepulchre, flings 
off the vestments of the tomb, and, gifted with 
beauty of form, and with powers unknown before, 
enters on the enjoyment of a new state of existence. 
To you I need not say anything of the classical asso- 
ciations or the train of spiritual reflections which 
such a change is calculated to excite. Without in- 
dulging in either the one or the other, Shakspeare 
has employed his knowledge of the fact to illustrate 



TRANSFORMATION OF INSECTS 



33 



the altered condition of Coriolanus, when from a 
Roman general he has become the invincible leader 
of the Volscians in their progress against his native 
city. " Is 't possible," asks Sicinius, " that so 
short a time can alter the condition of a man ? " 
and most justly is he answered by Menenius : " There 
is a difference between a grub and a butterfly, yet 
your butterfly was a grub." — Act V. Sc. IV. 




Caterpillar, leaf-cocoon, and chrysalis of the Prometheus Moth. 



Almost every one has noticed the destruction of 
clothes, furs, and tapestry by the larva of minute 
moths (Tineidce). It is not to be supposed, therefore, 
that the all-seeing eye of Shakspeare should pass un- 

D 



34 " THE WORM i' THE BUD." 

noticed so ordinary an occurrence. We accordingly 
find reference made to it in more than one instance. 
Thus Borachio, in "Much Ado about Nothing," 
speaks of " the smirch'd moth-eaten tapestry ;" and 
when the visitor of Virgilia is wishing her to " lay 
aside her stitchery " and play the idle huswife," she 
tauntingly says, " You would be another Penelope ; 
yet they say all the yarn she spun in Ulysses' absence 
did but fill Ithaca full of moths." — Coriolanus, Act I. 
Sc. III. 

There is another insect of the same family whose 
choice of a dwelling evinces a more refined luxurious- 
ness, if, indeed, we are warranted in making use, 
even metaphorically, of such a term, when to every 
insect the food destined for its support is that which 
is most grateful to its palate. The larva I allude 
to (Lozotcenia Rosana) passes by the " smirch'd ta- 
pestry," and chooses for its domicile " the fresh lap 
of the crimson rose." It there lives among the 
blossoms, and prevents the possibility of their further 
developement. The stop thus put to the ordinary 
course of vegetation must early have excited the 
attention of all who take delight in the " innocent 
flower," and hence we find — 

" the bud bit with an envious worm 

Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, 
Or dedicate his beauty to the same " — 

(Romeo and Juliet, Act I. Sc. I.) 



THE CANKER. 35 

has been a favourite object of comparison. In the 
mouth of Viola it becomes one of the most touching 
images that poet ever employed : 

" She never told her love ; 
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, 
Feed on her damask cheek." 

Twelfth Night, Act II. Sc. I. 

In many other passages " the worm " is either 
alluded to, or mentioned, as " the canker." Thus, 
when Laertes is cautioning Ophelia against 

" Hamlet and the trifling of his favour," (Act I. Sc. III.) 

his words are — 

" The canker galls the infants of the spring, 
Too oft, before their buttons be disclosed." 

Among the enumeration given by Titania of the 
duties of her fairy attendants — 

" To kill cankers in the musk-rose buds," 

(Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II. Sc. III.) 

holds a prominent place ; and when in the opening 
scene of the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," Protheus 
is defending himself against the raillery of his friend 
Valentine, the image which he employs is sldlfully 
turned against himself. 

" Protheus. Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud 
The eating canker dwells, so eating love 
Inhabits in the finest wits of all. 

D 2 



36 COCOON OF THE SILKWORM. 

Valentine. And writers say, as the most forward bud 
Is eaten by the canker ere it blow, 
Even so by love, the young' and tender wit 
Is turn'd to folly : blasting in the bud, 
Losing his verdure even in the prime." — Act I. Sc. I. 

The larvce yet mentioned are all of them destruc- 
tive in some degree to our property, either to that 
species of property comprised in the vegetable king- 
dom, or that which constitutes the raiment of our 
persons, or the furniture of our apartments ; and so 
far they are all represented as injurious to man. 
One, however, is casually introduced, whose labours 
may be considered as outweighing, by the advantages 
they produce, the injuries which all the others may 
occasionally inflict. It is the larva of a moth. 
The produce of its cocoon was at one period con- 
sidered so valuable, as to be estimated in Imperial 
Rome at its weight in gold, and even now it gives 
employment to many thousand individuals, and forms 
an important branch of our national manufactures. 
You no doubt suspect already that the insect to 
which I allude is the silkworm. Othello, in the cele- 
brated scene where he demands " the handkerchief," 
venerated as the dying gift of his mother, and en- 
dowed with supernatural virtues by " an Egyptian," 
mentions the insect thus : — 

" The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk." 

Act III. Sc. IV. 



THE NUT WEEVIL, 37 

In two passages Shakspeare mentions a nut with 
no kernel. In the first passage the words are em- 
ployed figuratively, to denote the absence of real 
worth in the character of Parolles — 

" There can be no kernel in this light nut." 

All's Well that Ends Well, Act II. Sc. V. 

In the other they are used to imply a want of under- 
standing. 

" Tliersites. Hector shall have a great catch if he knock out 
either of your brains : 'a were as good crack a fusty nut with no 
kernel."— Troilus mid Cressida, Act II. Sc. I. 

There is nothing in those extracts to indicate that 
Shakspeare was cognizant of 

" The red-capped worm that's shut 
Within the concave of a nut ;"—{Herrick , s Hesperides.*) 

but that he was so, is apparent from the phrase in 
As You Like It, " as concave as a worm-eaten nut," 
(Act III. Sc. IV.), and also from the passage in which 
he describes the equipage of Queen Mab — 

" Her chariot is an empty hazel nut, 
Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub, 
Time out of mind the fairies' coachmaker." 

Romeo and Juliet, Act I. Sc. IV. 

The " old grub " here mentioned by the poet as caus- 
ing the vacuity in the shell, is the larva of a weevil 

* Quoted by Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 309. 



38 



IMPERIAL DIET. 



(Balaninus nucum). The mother is furnished with 
a long horny beak, and while the nut is yet soft, 
drills a hole through the shell, deposits an egg, and 
thus furnishes its future offspring with a house for 
its defence, and food for its support. 




a branch of the filbert tree; a, perforation of the weevil; b, extremity 
of the nut; c, exit hole of the grub ; b, the grub; c, the pupa; d, 
the perfect insect. 

In the passages already quoted, the word worm is 
not applied to the object to which we usually give 
the name, the common earth-worm (Lumbricus ter- 
restris), but to the larva of some species of insect. 
It is in this sense that the word is almost invariably 
employed by Shakspeare. Thus, when Hamlet says, 
" your worm is your only emperor for diet," the 
meaning of the word worm is evident from the re- 
mainder of the passage — " We fat all creatures else 
to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots." 



THE BLIND-WORM'S STING. 39 

In one instance, however, the word worm denotes 
some species of venemous reptile ; for Cleopatra asks 
the countryman who brings her " the aspick," 
" Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus here, that kills 
and pains not ? " and some commentators have attri- 
buted a similar meaning to the words used by the 
disguised duke when addressing Claudio : 

" Thou art by no means valiant, 
For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork 
Of a poor worm."— Measure for Measure, Act III. Sc. I. 

In this opinion I for one do not concur. It seems 
to be more probable that in this instance, and in 
the line, 

" Worm nor snail do no offence,"— 

(Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II. Sc. III. 

the common earth-worm, which truly belongs to the 
class Vermes, is the creature alluded to. The word] 
worm occurs again in the enumeration by the witches 
in " Macbeth," of " the ingredients of our cauldron." 
But here the " blind- worm's sting" is obviously in- 
tended to apply to the Anguis fragilis, or blind- worm 
of Great Britain, a reptile which, I believe, is not 
found in Ireland. I saw it some years ago, for the 
first time, in that part of Scotland — 

"Where Loch Vennachar in silver flows." 

I shall not at present dwell longer on the notice 



40 



THE STUDY NOT UNPROFITABLE. 



taken by Shakspeare of insects ere they assume their 
perfect form. Enough has been adduced to show 
that he was aware of their changes, and familiar 
with the appearance and economy of those belonging 
to very different orders. But as you may perhaps 
wish to hear something of the powers occasionally 
exercised in tins part of the kingdom by those dimi- 
nutive and apparently contemptible beings, I shall 
send you shortly some notes respecting their ravages. 
After I have thus " showed you all the qualities 
o' the isle," you remain at perfect liberty to abjure 
Entomology, should it appear to you 

" Weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable." 





WLere the bee aucks t±iere suck I." 

TSMPSST, 



Having now, my dear friend, glanced at the 
destructive powers exercised by the caterpillars of 
insects, we are prepared for entering on some con- 
siderations relative to their economy and habits. 
But I must trespass a little longer on your patience, 
to bring before you in one connected view an im- 
portant point in their physical organization. Some 
tribes of insects, as you well know, are rapacious, 
and live by the destruction of those which are less 
powerful than themselves. Some, like " the worm 



42 ORGANS OF INSECTS. 

i' the bud," feast on the petals of flowers, and others 
revel on the nectar of our choicest fruits. By their 
numbers, their varied powers, and their diversified 
instincts, they exert a prodigious influence on the 
economy of Nature. This influence depends in 
many instances on the structure of those organs by 
which they provide themselves with nourishment, 
joined of course to those peculiar instincts invari- 
ably accompanying each particular formation of the 
mouth. I propose, therefore, in my present letter to 
confine myself to a slight sketch of the oral apparatus 
with which insects are furnished, an apparatus which 
undergoes an astonishing number of modifications. 
In fact, on a minute scrutiny, we find throughout all 
the insect tribes the same admirable adaptation of 
means to an end which has so frequently been pointed 
out in the various organs of quadrupeds and birds. 
The flexile trunk of the elephant, the graceful neck 
of the giraffe, the talons and strength of the eagle, 
the migratory powers of the swallow, are not better 
adapted to their wants and capabilities, than are the 
instruments by which insects take their respective 
food. It becomes, therefore, a pleasing inquiry to 
ascertain what structure of mouth belongs to each 
order of insects ; by what habits that structure is 
accompanied, and by what changes in those habits 
every alteration in the structure of the mouth is at- 



DESTRUCTION BY ANTS. 43 

tended. Nor is this an inquiry unconnected with 
the well-being of man, or far removed from his pur- 
suits. When we are told that about seventy years 
ago a species of ant appeared in the Island of Gre- 
nada in such infinite hosts as to put a stop to the 
cultivation of the sugar cane ; that the government 
of the country offered a reward of twenty thousand 
pounds to any person who should discover an effect- 
ual mode of destroying them ; and that many domestic 
quadrupeds, together with rats, mice, reptiles, and 
even birds, fell a prey to their attacks, we very 
naturally inquire by what means could an insect, so 
insignificant, produce effects so important ? * "When 
we read of locusts innumerable as flakes of snow, so 
rapacious as to devour every green thing, and at- 
tended in their progress by pestilence and famine, 
we ask, With what instruments of destruction can 
they be provided ? How are they rendered capable 
of exerting a power so terrific ? A glance at the 
formation of their mouths, and a moment's reflection 
on their bodily powers, and the myriads which make 
their appearance together, will solve the question. 

I shall not at present enter into any details of the 
habits of different insects : these I reserve for descrip- 
tion at some future time, taken in connection with 
the passages in which they are noticed by the Bard 
* Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 182. 



44 MOUTHS OF INSECTS. 

of Avon. But as insects belonging to seven different 
orders are mentioned in the plays of Shakspeare, I 
desire at present to convey to you an idea of the 
diversified structure observable in their mouths. For 
this purpose I shall endeavour not " to bestow my 
tediousness upon you " at greater length than the 
proposed object requires, and shall accordingly use 
only such quotations as are necessary to show that 
the insect I name is one of those recorded. 

For the introduction of scientific terms I make no 
apology. To one acquainted with the languages from 
which they are derived, those terms convey more 
distinct and definite ideas than any English words. 
But even if you were not so, I would still adopt 
the same course ; because I feel convinced that the 
difficulty of comprehending the meaning, and learning 
the signification, of a scientific term, is far more than 
counterbalanced by the accurate ideas with which 
it is ever afterwards connected in the mind of the 
student ; and I have had occasion to regret that in 
some recent publications the authors have made use 
of English words in a manner not only very per- 
plexing, but calculated to convey inaccurate, and 
even erroneous ideas. 

Few persons have examined the mouth of an in- 
sect ; even those who have suffered from its attack 
are ignorant of the structure of the weapon by which 



THE SHARDED BEETLE. 45 

the wound has been inflicted. All the animals, the 
birds, the fishes, which we are in the habit of meet- 
ing, have a mouth composed of an upper and lower 
jaw, and the motion appears to be vertical. The 
mouth in insects is totally different : many have 
two upper jaws and two under jaws, and in these 
the motion is horizontal. 

In the first order of insects (ColeopteraJ , to which 
the " sharded beetle " belongs, the several parts of 
the mouth are more distinct than in many of the 
other divisions. Beetles, therefore, of which this 
order is composed, are said to have more perfect 
mouths than gnats, moths, or butterflies. It is not 
meant that any real imperfection attaches to the 
mouth of a gnat, or of a butterfly ; on the contrary, 
we know that each "is perfect after its kind;" but 
by using the word perfect, I merely mean to say 
that each of the several parts of the mouth in the 
beetle tribes is more fully developed than in some of 
the other orders, where some parts are considerably 
enlarged, and others exist only as rudiments, or else 
are altogether wanting. 

A perfect mouth consists of seven parts : and will 
perhaps be better understood by a reference to the 
accompanying figure. The mouth consists, as in 
all masticating insects, of an upper lip, labrum (a) ; 
a pair of horny jaws, moving horizontally, called 



46 



COLEOPTEROUS INSECTS. 



mandibles (b) ; two other jaws, maxilla (c), of a less 
firm consistence, bearing a palpus or feeler (d) ; and 
lastly a lower lip, labium (e), furnished with a pair of 
palpi (/), and implanted upon a broad, horny, basal 
piece, which is termed the chin, or mentum (g). 




The upper and lower lip and the tongue are so 
analogous to the corresponding parts in the verte- 
brate animals, that I need not say any thing respect- 
ing their uses. With the jaws the case is widely 
different. 

The mandibles or upper jaws are situated on each 
side and immediately under the labrum or upper 
lip. The office of mastication peculiarly belongs to 
them. In some genera they are powerful instru- 
ments, of a hard substance like horn ; but in " the 
shard-borne beetle " they are soft and membranous. 
A corresponding change is observable in the habits 
of the insects. The former are cannibals, and live 



COLEOPTEROUS INSECTS. 47 

by rapine ; the latter are scavengers, and subsist on 
the dung of quadrupeds. The mandibles are generally 
armed with teeth, and those teeth are divided into 




Geotrupes stercorarius. 

incisive, laniary, and molary, as in the Mammalia , 
they are not, however, fixed into the mandibles, but 
form an actual part of those organs. Underneath 
the mandibles are the maxilla?, placed one on each 
side of the labium. They are occasionally employed 
in lacerating the food, but their primary use seems 
to be to hold and preserve it from falling, while the 
mandibles are employed in its laceration. In looking 
at the mouth of a beetle, you will probably observe 
some parts which I have not yet named. These are 
not essential, like those I have already mentioned. 
They are termed Palpi, and have a trivial appellation, 
derived from the peculiar part of the mouth to which 



48 ORTHOPTEB.OUS INSECTS. 

they are attached : when they spring from the maxillae, 
they are termed Maxillary Palpi ; when they are 
attached to the lower lip, they are called Labial Palpi. 
Much difference of opinion has existed as to their 
functions, but the most general belief now is, that 
they are really what their name denotes, " feelers." 




Mole Cricket, Gryllotalpa vulgaris. 

"As merry as crickets," is the comparison made 
use of by Poins in one of his frolics with the Prince, 
at the Boar's Head Tavern. This merry insect be- 
longs to a different order, Orthoptera, and exhibits in 
its mouth seven parts as distinct as those of the 
Coleoptera, but somewhat different in form. The 
mandibles are strong, and admirably adapted for 
cutting vegetable substances, on which the greater 
part of the order subsists ; and in this insect the 
tongue is more perfectly developed than in the beetle^ 
where it can scarcely be said to exist as a distinct 



ORGANS OF ORTHOPTEROUS INSECTS. 49 

The insects I have yet named employ their man- 
dibles for cutting, or for macerating their food. In the 
next division the mandibles supply the place cf tools 
for plastering, for digging, for salving, and for cut- 
ting, and the food on which the insect subsists is ob- 
tained, not by maceration, or by suction, but simply 
by lapping. This is effected by a tongue well fitted for 
the purpose, and protected by a sheath of a singular 
construction from injury when not in use. The 
insect I have selected as the representative of this 
order is one with which you have long been familiar, 
and from whose labours you have in more ways than 
one derived gratification. It seems so busy and so 
happy that the delicate Ariel found no stronger 
image to denote his own enjoyment than the ex- 
pression — 

" Where the bee sucks, there suck I." 

Tempest, Act V. Sc. I. 

Strictly speaking, the bee does not suck the honey 
from flowers, but collects it by means of his tongue, 
which is furnished with a contrivance for that pur- 
pose, not unlike a brush, or a round plate, fringed 
with hair. If we hold a bee by its wings, the mouth 
at first sight appears to consist only of a small trans- 
verse Up, and a pair of strong jaws, having a lateral 
motion, as in fig. 1. On further examination, how- 
ever, a flattened instrument of a shining brown colour 

E 



50 



MOUTH OF THE BEE. 



is perceived, extending from the lip to the throat : 
this is the tongue, and at the pleasure of the bee it 




can be projected forward, either in a straight or curved 
form, as in figs. 2 and 3. 

I wish much I could exhibit to you some mag- 
nified drawings in my possession, by which the sin- 
gular structure of this organ would be illustrated ; 
but as this is impossible, I must content myself with 
mentioning, that the tongue in the Coleopterous and 
Orthopterous orders was apparently of trifling im- 
portance ; but in the order Hymenoptera, it becomes 
themost conspicuous and remarkable part of its curious 
oral apparatus. The mandibles are powerful, as in the 
other tribes, but a new and complex piece of mecha- 
nism has been added. The tongue, furnished with 
numerous muscles, and protected by sheaths when 



ITS WOXDERFUL ADAPTATION. 5 J 

not in use, is unfolded and darted instantaneously 
into the blossom of a flower, sweeps up the nectar 
which it finds, and consigns it to the honey bag. It 
is then sheathed with the same rapidity, retracted in 
part into the mouth, and the remainder doubled up 
under the chin and neck, until again called into 




The Bee's Mouth magnified. 



active service. This tongue is so admirably fitted 
for " visiting every corner of the nectaries of flowers," 
that it has been supposed bees can obtain their con- 
tents without being obliged to use their mandibles, 
for cutting a passage into the blossoms. This, how- 
ever, is not always the case. The testimony of two 
very accurate observers leaves no doubt on my mind 

e 2 



52 THE HUMBLE BEE. 

that bees do pierce the corollas of some flowers 
to obtain their honey. Doctor J. L. Drummond, 
the talented author of " First Steps to Botany," and 
President of our Natural History Society, tells me 
that he has repeatedly seen them piercing the com- 
mon Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) for this purpose ; 
and Mr. Wyndman, another of my fellow members, 
and one who has paid considerable attention to 
Entomology, had the pleasure of seeing one of our 
wild bees (Bombus muscorumj busily engaged last 




b 

a, Mandible of the male, and b, of the female, Humble Bee. 

summer, in the Botanic Garden here, piercing the 
bell- shaped corollas of the Irish heath (Menziesia 
polifolia), and on examining the plants, found, to 
his great surprise, there was scarcely a blossom of 
the heath which had not thus been perforated. 

The passages in which the working bees are men- 
tioned by Shakspeare are so numerous, that I prefer 



shakspeare's drones. 53 

directing your attention to them at a future time to 
doing so now, when I am merely mentioning the 
construction of their mouths. The working bees 
are not, however, the only ones alluded to. In the 
" Midsummer Night's Dream/' when Bottom, the 
weaver, in the character of an ass, 

" With amiable cheeks and fair large ears," 

is giving orders to his new attendants, he makes use 
of the following words : — 

" Monsieur Cob-web, good Monsieur, get your weapons in your 
hand, and kill me a red hip'd humble bee on the top of a thistle ; and 
good Monsieur, bring me the honey bag." — Act IV. Sc. I. 

Drones are also noticed ; for Shylock, in speaking 
of his servant Launcelot, (whom he had parted with 
to Bassanio because he " would him help to waste 
his borrowed purse,") after describing him as " a 
huge feeder," " snail slow in profit," adds, " drones 
hive not with me." But as the drone, the ant, to 
which the fool in King Lear threatens to send Kent 
to school, and "injurious wasps," partake of the 
same general structure, so far as the mouth is con- 
cerned, I shall not detain you with a description of 
any minute difference between them. 

Shakspeare, above all other writers, seems to 
possess a plastic power of moulding every object of 



54 BUTTERFLIES. 

nature to his will, of constructing the little and the 
great alike to do his " spiriting gently," of finding 

" tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing." 

As You Like It, Act II. Sc. I. 

The butterfly supplies him with many images preg- 
nant with instruction, and grouped with an expression 
and variety, which no artist could embody, who did 




not, like our great Poet, possess an equal knowledge 
of the conduct and the heart of man. Thus it is in- 
troduced in the reflection of Achilles, when the 
Grecian lords, in " Troilus and Cressida," pass by 
him, and " either greet him not or else disdainfully" — 

" What the declined is 

He shall as soon read in the eyes of others, 

As feel in his own fall ; for men, like butterflies, 

Show not their mealy wings but to the summer." 

Act III. Sc. III. 

"The gentle Desdemona," when beseeching the 
senate that she might accompany the Moor to 



ORGANS OF THE LEPIDOPTERA. 55 

Cyprus, applies to herself the epithet " a moth of 
peace." I must not venture to quote all the various 
passages in which butterflies and moths are men- 
tioned, but shall at once proceed to point out the 
peculiar formation of mouth which the Lepidoptera 
possess. 

" The innumerable tribes of moths and butterflies," 
of which the order is composed, " eat nothing but 
the honey secreted in the nectaries of flowers, which 
are frequently situated at the bottom of a tube of 
great length. They are accordingly provided with 
an organ exquisitely fitted for its office — a slender 
and tubular tongue, more or less long, sometimes 
not shorter than three inches, but spirally convoluted 
when at rest, like the main-spring of a watch, into 
a convenient compass. This tongue, which they 
have the power of instantly unrolling, they dart into 
the bottom of a flower, and, as through a syphon, 
draw up a supply of the delicious nectar on which 
they feed."* I have called it a tongue, but strictly 
speaking it is not so. It is an organ of a carti- 
laginous substance, consisting of innumerable rings, 
and composed of three distinct tubes, through the 
centre one of which the honey alone is conveyed. 
This central one appears to be formed by the grooves 
of the lateral tubes, hooked together in the same 

* Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 395. 



56 ORGANS OF THE LEPIDOPTERA. 

manner as the lamina? of a feather, and capable of 
being united into an air-tight canal, or of being 
instantly separated, at the pleasure of the insect. 

The formation of mouth we have now been con- 
sidering is totally different from that of the Cole- 
optera, or Hymenoptera, formerly described. The 
mandibles have undergone a change : they no longer 
appear as powerful instruments for seizing or for 
cutting ; and the maxillge exhibit a still greater me- 
tamorphosis, and have become converted into the 
curious tubular apparatus through which the honey 
is imbibed. I do not of course mean that the maxillae 
of the butterfly were ever like those of the beetle : 
by the word metamorphosis, I merely mean that a 
difference is observed, and not that the one ever 
becomes converted into the other. These maxilla? 
are very singular in their structure, and you can, by 
taking a pin, and applying it to those of any butter- 
fly, satisfy yourself that it is composed of two dis- 
tinct tubes. Now, a question naturally arises, of 
what use are the two outer tubes, when the central 
one formed by their union is the only one through 
which the fluid passes ? To explain the cut bono of 
any point in animal physiology is, in our imperfect 
state of knowledge, a difficult undertaking; but I 
am inclined to think that they are of service in pro- 
tecting the central one from the pressure of the 



THE DIPTERA. 0/ 

atmosphere. If a vacuum were formed in the tube, 
and it were not strengthened by this contrivance, 
the sides might be pressed together, and the honey 
prevented from ascending to the mouth of the insect. 
This I throw out merely as a suggestion, the truth 
or falsehood of which I would wish you to prove by 
observation. If it be a " baseless fabric," the sooner 
it be " dissolved "the better. 

The next order of insects, the Diptera, or two- 
winged flies, are frequently mentioned. Titus An- 
dronicus rebukes his brother Marcus for killing a 
fly during a repast : — 

" Poor harmless fly ! 
That with his pretty buzzing melody 
Came here to make us merry, and thou hast kill'd him." 
Act III. Sc. II. 

" The common people swarm like summer flies, 
And whither fly the gnats but to the sun ? " 

(Act II. Sc. VI.) 

is the reflection of the wounded Clifford in " Henry 
the Sixth." 

" My brave Egyptians all 
Lie graveless till the flies and gnats of Nile 
Have buried them for prey," — (Act III. Sc. XL) 

are the words of Cleopatra. 

These extracts sufficiently indicate that Shakspeare 
was familiar with the habits of some of the many 
genera comprised in this order. To the different 
formation of their mouths I would now wish to 



58 



ORGANS OF THE DIPTERA. 



direct your attention ; but I find it impossible to con- 
vey to you, without the aid of magnified drawings, 




a, Antenna of the Tipulida—'B, of Tabanus—c, of Musca. 

a precise idea of the variations in structure which 
they exhibit. They have, however, one common 
character ; they are formed for imbibing food by 
suction ; of this the common fly is perhaps the most 
familiar example. In other genera, as in that to 
which the " small grey-coated gnat " belongs, the 
labrum, mandibulse, maxillee, and lingua, become 
converted into a series of sharp and delicate instru- 
ments, which not only pierce the skin, but form a 
tube for the passage of the blood on which they live. 





a, Mouth of Tabamis—B, of Musca. 



THE HEMIPTERA. 59 

It is supposed, and not without good reason, that 
they have the power of instilling a poison into the 
wound, which has the effect of rendering the blood 
more fluid, and better adapted for suction. 

Insects of the order Hemiptera abstract the juices 
of plants and animals by means of an instrument of 
a construction altogether different. To this order 
the bug (Cimex lectuluriusj belongs ; but it is a 
singular fact, and one which shows that this dis- 
gusting visitant must have been comparatively little 
known in the days of " good Queen Bess," that 
although the word bug occurs on five or six different 
occasions in Shakspeare's Plays, it is in every instance 
synonymous with bugbear, and does not designate 
the insect. Thus Petruchio, unawed by the descrip- 
tion of the " wild cat " Catharine, scornfully exclaims 
to the lovers of Bianca : " Tush, tush! fear boys with 
bugs ;" and when Leontes, inflamed with groundless 
jealousy against Hermione, bids her " look for no 
less than death," her reply contains the same word 
in precisely a similar sense : — 

" Sir, spare your threats, 

The bug which you will fright me with I seek." 

Winter's Tale, Act III. Sc. I. 

It is not so, however, with another, to which you 

would be most likely to apply the words of Jaques — 

" let 's meet as little as we can." 

As You Like It, Act III. Sc. II. 



60 THE APTERA. 

The insect I allude to, is that mentioned by Dame 
Quickly in describing the death of Sir John Falstaff, 
" 'A saw a flea sticking upon Bardolph's nose." In 
this order (Aphaniptera) the mandibles appear like 
two little plates: the maxillae and tongue assume 
the form of lancets, and the labrum and palpi are 
altogether different. 

One insect still remains, belonging to the order 
Aptera ; but I shall let Shakspeare himself intro- 
duce it to your notice. The passage I shall quote 
is from the opening scene of the " Merry Wives of 
Windsor," in which Justice Shallow, Slender, and 
Evans are holding forth on the importance of Shallow 
and his family, on his being " a gentleman born," 
and writing himself " Armigero : " — 

" Shallow.— Ay, that I do, and have done so any time these 
three hundred years. 

Slender.— All his successors gone before him have done it, 
and all his ancestors that come after him may : they may give the 
dozen white luces in their coat. 

Shallow. — 'Tis an old coat. 

Evans.— The dozen white louses do become an old coat well : 
it agrees well passant ; it is a familiar beast to man, and signifies 
love." 

Swammerdam, who died in 1681, is the latest 
naturalist I have heard of, who has paid any attention 
to the structure or anatomy of the genus. His words 
are, " The louse has neither beak, teeth, nor any 
kind of mouth, as Doctor Hook described it, for the 



HABITS OF 1XSECTS. 61 

entrance into the gullet is absolutely closed ; in 
place of all these, it has a proboscis, or trunk, or, as 
it may be otherwise called, a pointed and hollow 
aculeus or sucker, with which it pierces the skin, 
and sucks the human blood, taking it for food into 
the body." — Book of Nature, p. 33. 

Now, my dear Arnold, cast a retrospective glance 
over the various formations of mouth which I have 
described. In the Coleoptera, the powerful jaws 
of the predaceous beetles (formidable weapons of 
attack!), and the softer texture of the organs in those 
tribes, which live on substances in a state of decay. 
The strong mandibles of another order (Orthoptera) , 
adapted to the cutting of their appropriate vegetable 
food. The various modifications of these instru- 
ments, in the extensive genera of the order Hymeno- 
ptera,\ giving to them the capability of being used 
as spades, saws, augers, trowels, &c, and the new 
and important offices which are performed by the 
tongue. The change which is apparent when we 
advance to the butterfly (Lepidoptera) , and examine 
the flexible siphon, through which its nectareous nu- 
triment is imbibed. The singular and varied struc- 
ture exhibited in the gnat or the fly (Diptera), and 
so fitted for the suction of their liquid food. The 
still further modifications presented by the lancets 
and the sucker of the remaining orders (Aphaniptera 



62 MECHANISM IN INSECTS. 

and Aptera), and by the total absence of parts which 
in others had held a conspicuous place. Contrast 
this diversity of structure with the comparative uni- 
formity observable among the higher animals. Con- 
sider, too, how admirably each set of organs is adapted 
to the peculiar food on which the insect lives ; what 
infinite skill, what minute, yet beautiful mechanism, 
they respectively exhibit, and you will admit that 
Entomology may have many a sentiment of humble 
admiration and wonder — many a devout and unpre- 
meditated outpouring of devotional feeling laid upon 
her shrine ; and that the words which Cleomenes em- 
ployed when speaking of Delphos would not in the 
present instance be inapplicable ; 

" The air most sweet "— " the temple much surpassing 
The common praise it bears."— Winter's Tale, Act III. Sc. I. 





The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums, 
Hath rung night's yawning peal." 



From caterpillars of the several kinds mentioned 
by Shakspeare, and from the consideration of the 
various forms of the mouth observable among in- 
sects, we now advance to their habits and most 
remarkable peculiarities. I hope that the " gentle 
dulness" which may have pervaded many parts of 
my former letters will now be dispelled, and that 
you may become interested in attending to the 
working of those various instincts with which the 
beings we are considering have been endowed. So 



64 the beetle's hum. 

wonderful and admirable are their operations that 
Bonnet says, "When I see an insect working at the 
construction of a nest or a cocoon, I am impressed 
with respect, because it seems to me that I am at a 
spectacle where the supreme Artist is hid behind the 
curtain." 

The first insect I shall mention, and the one to 
which I shall confine myself in my present letter, is 
the common dor, or clock or blind beetle, which flies 
in the summer's evenings, and occasionally startles 
us by striking against our faces or our persons. 
This circumstance has been accurately described by 
Collins : — 

" Now air is hushed save 

where the beetle winds 

His small but sullen horn ; 
As oft he rises, midst the twilight path, 
Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum." 

Ode to Evening. 

Gray has most happily depicted, in his well-known 
elegy, the circumstances under which it appears. 
The flocks are returning from pasture, the husband- 
man from his toil, the landscape is fading " on the 
sight," and the air is still, 

" Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight." 

The remai'kable sound which accompanies its flight 
has been frequently noticed. 



the beetle's hum. 65 

"The beetle's drowsy distant hum" is mentioned 
in one of Hogg's songs, as singing the lullaby of the 
departing day, and is again described in his amusing 
little poem " Connel of Dee." 

" The beetle began bis wild airel to tune, 
And sang on the wynd with an eirysome croon, 
Away on the breeze of the Dee." 

Vol. II. p. 119. 

The beetle's hum is recorded by Crabbe among 

" the sounds that make 

Silence more awful." 

Shakspeare has intrqduced it with the happiest effect 
into his " Macbeth." 



Ere the bat hath flown 



His cloister'd flight ; ere to black Hecate's summons 
The shard-borne beetle, with his drowsy hums, 
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done 
A deed of dreadful note." 

Macbeth, Act III. Sc. II. 

And here I may be permitted to remark, that a 
very slight knowledge of Natural History may occa- 
sionally assist us, in understanding the description 
of such authors as record what they themselves have 
noticed. The beetle is furnished with two large 
membranaceous wings, which are protected from 
external injury by two very hard, horny wing cases, 
or, as entomologists term them, elytra. The old 
English name was " shard," and this word was 



66 THE " SHARD-BORNE BEETLE." 

introduced into three of Shakspeare's plays. Thus, 
in his " Antony and Cleopatra," — 

" They are his shards, and he their beetle ;" 

(Act III. Sc. II.) 

and in " CymbeHne," — 

" Often to our comfort do we find 
The sharded beetle in a safer hold 
Than is the full-wing'd eagle."— Act III. Sc. III. 

These shards or wing cases are raised and ex- 
panded when the beetle flies, and by their concavity 
act like two parachutes in supporting him in the air. 
Hence the propriety and correctness of Shakspeare's 
description, " the shard-borne beetle," a description 
embodied in a single epithet. I do not mean to 
assert that the word shard has not other meanings ; 
in fact, it is employed by Hamlet in its primitive 
English signification — a piece of broken tile ; for the 
priest says of Ophelia, 

"Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her." 
Act V. Sc. I. 

I only deny that any of its other meanings should be 
used in the present instance. The one most applicable 
is that given by Mr. Toilet, as quoted in the notes 
to Ayscough's edition of Shakspeare, that " shard- 
born beetle is the beetle born in cow-dung; and 
that shard expresses dung is well known in the 



THE SCARABJEUS. 67 

north of Staffordshire, where cow's shard is the 
word generally used for cow-dung." But it is not so 
likely that Shakspeare was acquainted with the 
stercoraceous nidus of the insect, as that he observed 
the peculiarity of its flight, assisted by its expanded 
elytra ; and if the word at the time he lived had both 
meanings, I hope you will acknowledge the one I 
have given to be the more probable. Should you, 
however, feel disposed to enter more fully into a 
question of the kind, I would refer you to a long 
and very interesting note published in the Zoological 
Journal, No. xviii. p. 147. 

The dor, or blind beetle (Geotrupes stercorarius), 
belongs to the Linnsean genus Scarabaus. The 
antennae are composed of several little plates strung 
together at one edge ; these, when the insect reposes, 
are closely applied to each other, but they diverge 
when it moves, and thus expose the papillary surface 
to the air. It belongs to one of the numerous tribes 
of insects which feed on organized matter in a state 
of decay, and thus assist in preserving the general 
salubrity of the earth. From their mode of life 
the word " saprophaga," signifying literally, as you 
know, " devourers of filth," has become the name 
by which the family is distinguished. Mr. MacLeay, 
so well known among modern naturalists as the 
proposer of the quinary system of classification, 

f 2 



68 SACRED SCARAB^IUS. 

states that it was the peculiar interest which the 
Scarabceus sacer of Linnseus excited as being a 
principal among the many objects " qualia demens 
^Egyptus coluit." that first led him to investigate 
the natural history of the insect. His father's cabinet 
contained one thousand eight hundred species of sca- 
rabsei, and thus supplied him with an inducement to 
commence the study, and with the means for its 
successful cultivation. 

The sacred scarabseus, which first led MacLeay to 
the study of Entomology, differs in some of its habits 
from our most common native scarabsei, although 
belonging to the same Linnaean genus. Its image 
sculptured on many of the Egyptian monuments 
affords a melancholy proof of the superstition which 
reigned in a country where the arts flourished and 
science found an abode. The insect is still common 
in Egypt, and excites by its habits the surprise of 
all who have only been accustomed to see the com- 
mon dor of these countries. Doctor Clarke says, 
" Upon the sands around the city of Rosetta we saw 
the Scarabseus pilularius, or rolling beetle, [it is now 
more properly termed the Scarabseus sacer,] as it is 
sculptured on the obelisks and other monuments of 
the country, moving before it a ball of dung, in 
which it deposits an egg. Among the Egyptian 
antiquities preserved in the British Museum is a 



AN OBJECT OF WORSHIP IN EGYPT. 69 

most colossal figure of this insect. It is placed 
upon an altar, before which a priest is represented 
kneeling. The beetle served as food for the Ibis. Its 
remains are sometimes discovered in the earthenware 
repositories of those embalmed birds which are found 
at Saccara and Thebes. With the ancients it was a 
type of the sun. We often find it among the 
characters used in the hieroglyphic writing. As this 
insect appears in that season of the year which im- 
mediately precedes the inundation of the Nile, it 
may have been so represented as a symbol of the 
spring, or of fecundity, or of the Egyptian month 
anterior to the rising of the water. The ancient 
superstitions with regard to it are not wholly extinct, 
for the women of the country still eat this beetle in 
order to become prolific."* 

In Denon's splendid work on Egypt, I find the 
following passage, which bears directly on the sub- 
ject of our present inquiry : — " Scarabees, emblemes 
de la sagesse, de la force, de l'industrie : son image 
se trouve partout, ainsi que celle du serpent ; il 
occupe la place la plus distingu^e dans les temples, 
non seulement comme ornement, comme attribut, 
mais comme objet de culte." — Vol. n. p. 60. 

" The subject admits of further illustration by 
reference to Plutarch. f According to him, soldiers 
* Travels, vol. iv. p. 8. t Plutarch de Iside et Osiride, cap. x. 



70 ITS IMAGE ON SIGNETS. 

wore the image of the beetle upon their signets ; and 
this, perhaps, may account not only for the number 
of them found, but also for the coarseness of the 
workmanship."* 

The unrolment of a mummy in the Royal College 
of Surgeons, London, on the 16th of January, 1834, 
afforded another example of the superstitious feelings 
connected with the scarabseus among the ancient 
Egyptians. From the mythological characters 
painted on the cases, the nature of the colours em- 
ployed, &c, it was ascertained that the body was 
that of an incense-bearing priest, of the temple 
of Ammon, at Thebes. " An amulet of various- 
coloured stones was on the breast, and lower down 
a scarabaeus, about an inch in length, in jade or 
other hard substance." — Lit. Gaz., No. 887. 

The habits of the beetle at Rosetta, described by 
Doctor Clarke, are similar to those of many indi- 
viduals of the same family, — among them to one 
which I have found about the base of the Mourne 
mountains, county of Down, in spring (Geotrupes 
vernalis) . This insect is said to deposit its egg in a 
ball, prepared for that purpose, and rolled in the man- 
ner already described ; but in districts where sheep 
are kept it wisely saves its labour, and ingeniously 
avails itself of the pellet- shaped balls of dung which 
* Travels, vol. iv. p. 8. 



HABITS OF THE BEETLE. 71 

those animals supply, and which are admirably 
adapted for its purpose.* The dor or blind beetle 
adopts a different course of proceeding ; and it must 
excite our admiration of the infinite wisdom with 
which every part of the economy of nature is 
ordered, to observe that the method employed by the 
female to secure a proper nidus for her eggs, serves 
" to second, too, another use." She makes a large 
cylindrical hole, often of considerable depth, and in 
it she deposits her eggs, surrounded by a mass of 
dung, in which they have been previously enveloped. 
Here the labour of the insect ceases ; the develope- 
ment of her young is secured, and their sustenance 
provided. But the advantage resulting from her toil 
does not terminate. The manure, which is positively 
injurious to vegetation when lying in a mass, is not 
only dispersed, but it is buried at the roots of the 
adjoining plants, thus contributing considerably to 
the fertility of our pastures, and, consequently, to 
the well-being of all those animals who depend on 
these pastures for their support. 

Spring is in general far advanced before the dor 
beetle appears, so that we usually regard it as a 
summer visitant : an occasional one, however, ven- 
tures to come forth at an earlier period, for in the 

* Sturm, Deutschlancls Fauna, i. 27, quoted by Kirby and Spence, 
vol. ii. p. 475. 



72 FEIGNED DEATH OF ANIMALS. 

spring of 1834, I recognized the insect on the even- 
ing of the 11th of March, in the immediate vicinity 
of Belfast. 

I have often been amused, on taking the common 
dor beetle, at observing the manner in which it feigns 
death. Its legs are set out perfectly stiff and im- 
moveable, which is its posture when really dead, and, 
no matter how much it is tossed about in the hand, 
it will not, by the slightest movement, betray its 
stratagem. The only way to restore its activity is 
to allow it to remain for a minute or two undis- 
turbed. It is said by this procedure to deceive the 
rooks, which feed upon it, but which do so only 
when their captive is alive. A curious example of 
a similar instinct in birds is given in the " Time's 
Telescope" for 1833 : — " A gentleman had a corn- 
crake brought to him by his dog : it was dead to all 
appearance. As it lay on the ground he turned it 
over with his foot : he was convinced that it was 
dead ; standing by, however, some time in silence, 
he suddenly saw it open an eye. He then took it 
up ; its head fell, its legs hung loose, it appeared 
again totally dead. He then put it in his pocket, 
and before very long he felt it all alive, and struggling 
to escape. He took it out : it was as lifeless as 
before. He then laid it upon the ground, and re- 
tired to some distance : in about five minutes it 



GREAT STRENGTH OF BEETLES. 73 

warily raised its head, looking round, and decamped 
at full speed." 

The dor beetle, in common with many others, is 
occasionally infested with minute parasitic insects, 
termed acari. In my cabinet at present I have one 
of the rapacious beetles (Carabidce) so covered with 
these parasites, that the real colour of the beetle is no 
where visible, not even on the legs. I was witness, 
in 1831, on the Malone road, near this town, of an 
ingenious device, which the dor beetle employed to 
get rid of its tormentors. It alighted on a heap of 
hardened dirt, folded up its wings with its usual 
rapidity, then forced its way twice through the mass, 
and while the acari which were thus brushed off, 
were running about in great apparent confusion, it 
hurried from their vicinity and effected its escape. 

The great strength of these beetles in comparison 
with their size is a peculiarity deserving of notice. 
If one is taken in the hand, it will in a very short 
time force its way out in despite of our utmost 
pressure. Catesby, in his " Carolina," states that 
" Doctor j Brichell was supping one evening in a 
planter's house of North Carolina, when two of 
them were conveyed without his knowledge under 
the candlesticks. A few blows were struck on the 
table, when, to his great surprise, the candlesticks 
began to move about, apparently without any agency ; 



74 THEIR NUMBERS 

and his surprise was not much lessened when, on 
taking one of them up, he discovered that it was 
only a chafer that moved." 

This fact must have been known to Sir Walter 
Scott, for in " Peveril of the Peak," in the scene 
where Julian Peveril and Geoffry Hudson are im- 
prisoned together, the dwarf says, " The least crea- 
tures are oftentimes the strongest. Place a beetle 
under a tall candlestick, and the insect will move it 
by its efforts to get out ; which is, in point of com- 
parative strength, as if one of us should shake his 
Majesty's prison of Newgate by similar struggles." 

We are generally in the habit of seeing but one or 
two of these insects at a time, but on some occasions 
they appear in considerable numbers. Mr. Knapp, 
in his " Journal of a Naturalist," states that one 
evening his attention was called to them in par- 
ticular, by the passing of such a number as to con- 
stitute a little stream. " I was led," he continues, 
" to search into the object of their direct flight, as in 
general it is irregular and seemingly inquisitive. I 
soon found that they dropped on some recent 
nuisance : but what powers of perception must these 
creatures possess, drawn from all distances and 
directions by the very little fcetor which in such a 
calm evening could be diffused around ! and by what 
inconceivable means could odours reach this beetle, 



AND CLEANLINESS. /O 

so as to rouse so inert an insect into action ! But it 
is appointed one of the great scavengers of the earth, 
and marvellously endowed with powers of sensation, 
and means of effecting the purpose of its being."* 

The same elegant writer remarks, " The perfect 
cleanliness of these creatures is a very notable cir- 
cumstance, when we consider that nearly their whole 
lives are passed in burrowing the earth, and re- 
moving nuisances ; yet, such is the admirable polish 
of their coating and limbs, that we seldom find any 
soil adhering to them. The meloe, and some of the 
scarabasi, upon first emerging from their winter's 
retreat, are commonly found with earth clinging to 
them; but the removal of this is one of the first 
operations of the creature, and all the beetle race, 
the chief occupation of which is crawling about the 
soil and such dirty employs, are, notwithstanding, 
remarkable for the glossiness of their covering and 
freedom from defilement of any kind. But purity of 
vesture seems to be a principal precept of nature, and 
observable throughout creation." f 

It is obvious from the various circumstances now 
mentioned, that this humble beetle and its congeners 
have been objects of interest to many cultivated 
minds. They have furnished our poets with imagery, 
which will live with our " land's language." They 

* Pagre 319, third edition. t Page 321. 



76 STUDY OF THEM RECOMMENDED. 

have formed a subject for the ingenuity of learned 
commentators. They have demanded the notice of 
the historian, and the inquiry of the antiquarian : and 
their various instinctive actions have supplied a theme 
for the admiration of the naturalist. If, in the pre- 
sent imperfect state of our knowledge, and with our 
attention directed to only one of their most obvious 
external characteristics, they have been found thus 
interesting, what delight should we not feel if we 
could follow the complexity of their internal organiza- 
tion, and develope the laws, on which their produc- 
tion, their growth, and their preservation, essentially 
depend ! 





Oh ! I do fear thee, Claudio ; and I quake. 
Lest thou a feverous life should'; 
And sis or seven winters more respect 
Than a perpetual honour." 

MEASURE FOR MEi 



After mentioning the best-known individual of 
all those included under the term " beetles," I now 
proceed to notice one of the most important divisions 
of the insects belonging to the same order fColeo- 
pteraj . I allude to those which, instead of subsisting 
on decayed vegetable and animal substances, are 
predaceous in their habits, and live on animal food 
(Adephaga) . The principal part of their subsistence 



78 VORACITY OF THE CARABID.E. 

is derived from the flesh of the smaller insects 
which they are able to overcome, and they seize as 
booty any recent animal matter which chance may 
throw in their way. They are so constantly forag- 
ing about for provisions, so incessantly running 
across our paths, that they must occasionally be 
trampled to death. 

Hence " the poor beetle that we tread upon " 
probably belongs to the tribe forbidden by the fairies 
to come near the sleeping Titania : — 

" Beetles black, approach not here." 

Almost every stone during spring and summer forms 
a covering for some of these insects, as you have no 
doubt observed on many occasions. So numerous 
are the individuals comprised in some of the families 
into which they are divided, that of one very com- 
mon kind (CarabidceJ , Curtis states we have two 
hundred and seventy-five British species. All of 
these are complete cannibals in their habits, and 
sometimes by their rapacity disappoint the inexperi- 
enced collector. On one occasion, when I was from 
home on an entomological excursion, I put three of 
them into a box together until I had an opportunity 
of plunging them into hot water, the most expeditious 
method of lolling them. In about an hour I re- 
turned to the house, and found, to my disappoint- 



SENSIBILITY OF INSECTS. 79 

ment, that two of them had overpowered the third, 
had eaten the body, and were then deliberately pick- 
ing out the fragments of flesh which still adhered to 
the horny covering. 

" The poor beetle that we tread upon" must not, 
however, be passed by with so cursory a notice. The 
precise meaning which in this passage the Poet in- 
tended to convey would indicate to us what was 
Shakspeare's opinion of the sensibility of insects 
compared with that of man, and this in our present 
researches it is important to ascertain. The passage 
in which these words occur, is introduced in " Mea- 
sure for Measure." 

" the poor beetle that we tread upon 

In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 
As when a giant dies." — Act III. Sc. I. 

Numerous, indeed, are the observations to which 
those lines have given rise. It is usually asserted 
that the Poet meant to say, " the corporal sufferings of 
a giant are great, and those of a beetle when trodden 
underfoot are as great." If this be so, the Entomologist 
who kills an insect for his cabinet, occasions the same 
amount of actual suffering he would do, were he to 
put one of his fellow-creatures to death. Were this 
the case, I for one would abjure a pursuit so fraught 
with cruelty, and bury my entire collection " deeper 
than e'er plummet sounded." But, before I say 



80 shakspeare's meaning explained. 

" Othello's occupation's gone," let us examine more 
closely the words which Shakspeare employs, and 
the circumstances under which they are used. 
Claudio is in a dungeon, from which the compliance 
of his sister Isabella with the terms of the viceroy 
would set him free. She dreads his fear of death 
may overcome his sense of honour, and that he may 
urge her, as in fact he eventually does, to adopt that 
remedy which " to save a head " would " cleave a 
heart in twain." Under this apprehension she 
speaks : — 

" Oh ! I do fear thee, Claudio ; and I quake, 
Lest thou a feverous life should' st entertain, 
And six or seven winters more respect 
Than a perpetual honour. Darest thou die ? 
The sense of death is most in apprehension ; 
And the poor beetle that we tread upon 
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 
As when a giant dies." 

When the latter part of the sentence is separated 
from the preceding lines, it appears to convey such 
a picture of the sufferings of " the poor beetle," that 
many have, on this passage, brought a charge of 
cruelty against all persons devoted to Entomological 
pursuits. Such a charge, ignorance alone could 
suggest. " There are few instances of a more com- 
plete perversion of the meaning of a poetical quota- 
tion than occurs in this passage of Shakspeare. The 
object of the fair pleader being to encourage her 



shakspeare's meaning explained. 81 

brother stedfastly to encounter death, would scarcely 
have been forwarded by depicting that consummation 
as attended with great corporal sufferance. Yet 
such is the effect of the omission of the context !"* 

The Rev. Mr. Bird, after observing, that even 
" Shakspeare is not an oracle on all points," remarks, 
" It is somewhat amusing that his words should, in 
this case, be entirely wrested from their original 
purpose. His purpose was to show how little a man 
feels in dying ; that ' the sense of death is most in 
apprehension, not in the act ; and that even a beetle, 
which feels so little, feels as much as a giant does.' 
The less, therefore, the beetle is supposed to feel, the 
more force we give to the sentiment of Shakspeare. "j 

To these extracts I shall make no addition ; for 
additional argument might well appear " wasteful 
and ridiculous excess." The ungrounded charge has, 
I hope, been triumphantly refuted. 

Beetles are mentioned by Shakspeare only in the 
two passages already quoted, and amid the impreca- 
tions of Caliban against the majestic Prospero — 

" All the charms 
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you." 

Tempest, Act I. Sc. II. 

None of these imply, on the part of Shakspeare, 

* Note by E. T. Bennett.— Zoological Journal, No. xviii. p. 196. 
t On the Want of Analogy between the Sensations of Insects and 
our own.— Entomological Magazine, No. ii. p. 113. 

G 



82 POPULAR IGNORANCE OF ENTOMOLOGY. 

a knowledge of the variety of their kinds. This is 
what might be expected ; for even Ray's celebrated 
work, "Historia Insectorum," published near a cen- 
tury after the death of our own great poet, was writ- 
ten, according to Haworth, in "the dark ages of 
science." We must not, therefore, demand from 
Shakspeare a knowledge beyond that of the age in 
which he lived. Perhaps, if the state of science at 
that time had been different, it would still have made 
little, if any, change in him. He would probably 
have exerted, as he did, his habits of quick and 
accurate observation, but would not have courted the 
assistance which science only can afford. In this 
respect he might have resembled many gifted indi- 
viduals of the present day, who, with all the facilities 
which they possess of acquiring knowledge, have 
never devoted a little time to learn how they might 
discriminate one insect from another ; how they 
might distinguish those living things, by which, 
in every place and at all seasons, they are sur- 
rounded. 

Perhaps no stronger proof can be adduced of the 
" plentiful lack" of information which prevails on 
this subject, than that which the state of our lan- 
guage affords. Try but to indicate by English 
words the first half-dozen of the most common 
beetles you meet in a country ramble, and you will 



CAKABUS NITENS AND CLATHRATUS. 83 

find yourself unable to do so. In fact, their various 
species, their habits, and their economy, are to the 
generality of people alike unknown. Yet these 
are the phenomena which will make your love of 
Entomology " grow by what it feeds on." So nu- 
merous are the different species of beetle, and many 
of them so local in their habitation, that no one who 
pays attention to the subject for any length of time, 
can fail to procure either what is extremely rare, or 
else altogether unknown. I well recollect the plea- 
sure I experienced, when I procured, on the shore of 
Lough Neagh, at Shane's Castle, specimens of 
Blethisa borealis and Bembidium paludosum, insects 
which had not before been taken in this neighbour- 
hood, and which I believe had not previously been 
recorded as Irish. In my cabinet I have at present 
one of our most brilliant native insects, the Carabus 
nitens, a species which approaches in the splendour 
of its decoration to the diamond beetle of tropical 
climates. This insect was taken, along with Carabus 
clathratus, on Birkie bog, about five miles from this 
town. This bog is so divested of those heaths and 
blossoms which lend beauty to the waste and colour- 
ing to the landscape, that when the very extreme of 
sterility or nakedness is to be expressed, the country 
people in the vicinity invariably say, " as bare as 
Birkie." Yet here, on this bleak, barren, and un- 



84 CICIXDELA CAMPESTRIS. 

cultivated waste, the Entomologist finds one of his 
richest and most valuable captures. As the Knight 




Carabus clathratus. 

in Undine sees the forest glades peopled beneath his 
feet, and rich with countless heaps of gold, so the 
Entomologist finds, 'mid the bleak and sterile soil, 
treasures which no eye less gifted than his own can 
witness. 

The mention of Carabus nitens reminds me of 
another beetle of a more agile form, and of scarcely- 
inferior decorations, — Cicindela campestris. Its colour 
is a golden green, with white or yellow spots, and 
appears peculiarly rich when the insect is running 
rapidly along in the bright sunshine of a summer 
day. You would not, when it first attracted your 
attention by the beauty of its form and colouring, 



THE GLOW-WORM. 85 

be aware that you are looking on one of a family justly- 
named by Linnseus the tigers of the insect tribes. 
" Though decorated with brilliant colours, they prey 
upon the whole insect race ; their formidable jaws, 
which cross each other, are armed with fearful fangs, 
showing to what use they are applicable ; and the 
extreme velocity with which they can either run or 
fly, renders hopeless any attempt to elude their pur- 
suit. Their larvae are also equally tremendous with 
the imago."* I have in my cabinet specimens of the 
insect from the county Wicklow, and from the Tro- 
sachs, at Loch Katrine ; but it has not yet been ob- 
served in the neighbourhood of this town. I hope 
you will be able to detect its presence in your locality. 
But perhaps, like Miranda, " I prattle something 
too wildly;" so I shall now return once more to 
Shakspeare. Although the word beetle occurs only 
in the passages I have quoted, he has elsewhere 
noticed, under a different name, an individual which 
belongs to the same order. I allude to the glow-worm 
(Lampyris noctiluca), an insect rich in poetic associ- 
ations, and well deserving of the epithet "earth-born 
star," bestowed upon it by Wordsworth. It is hap- 
pily introduced by Titania, where she enumerates to 

" Pease-blossom ! Cobweb ! Moth ! and Mustard-seed !" 

the fairy-like services which they were to render to 

* Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 268. 



86 VINDICATION OF SHAKSPEARE. 

the "gentle mortal," " sweet bully Bottom," with 

whom, in consequence of the potent spell laid on 

her by Oberon, she has become " much enamoured." 

" Steal from the humble bees, 
And for night tapers crop their waxen thighs, 
And light them at the fiery glow-worms' eyes." 

Act III. Sc. I. 

This passage has been thus censured by Doctor 
Johnson : — " I know not how Shakspeare, who com- 
monly derived his knowledge of Nature from his own 
observation, happened to place the glow-worm's light 
in his eyes, which is only in his tail." To this, Mason 
has replied, that " the blunder is not in Shakspeare, 
but in those who have construed too literally a poetic 
expression ;" and adds, *' Surely a poet is justified in 
calling the luminous part of the glow-worm the eye : 
it is a liberty we take in plain prose ; for the point 
of greatest brightness in a furnace is commonly 
called the eye of it." * 

Hoping you will agree with Mr. Douce, that Dr. 

Johnson's objection has " been skilfully removed by 

Mr. Monck Mason," I shall give you, in the words 

of that celebrated antiquarian, the meaning of Shaks- 

peare's most appropriate epithet " uneffectual," in 

the passage from Hamlet, 

" The glow-worm shews the matin to be near, 

And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire."— Act I. Sc. V. 

* Comments on the last edition of Shakspeare's Plays, p. 12. 



THE GLOW-WORM S " NUPTIAL LAMP. 8/ 

" It was," he remarks, " unefFectual only at the ap- 
proach of morn, in like manner as the light of a 
candle would be at mid-day." * 

If you have ever seen the glow-worm, you may be 
unable to account for the soft wingless creature you 
behold being classed with the Coleoptera ; but it is 
in the male you are to look for the expansive wings, 
and the horny wing-covers or elytra, which form 
some of the characteristics of the order. The female 
crawls upon the ground, — the male wings his flight 



. 




Male and female Glow-worm. 

through the air. The light of the former is beautiful 
and brilliant; that of the latter, comparatively in- 
conspicuous, — a fact of which Shakspeare does not 
appear to have been cognizant. 

It has been poetically supposed, that the light may 
be regarded as a " nuptial lamp," hung out to guide 
the male glow-worm to the society of the female ; 

* Illustrations, p. 192, 



OO THE GLOW-WORM 

an idea which has been happily embodied by Moore, 
in the following lines : — 

" For well I knew the lustre shed 
From my rich wings, when proudliest spread, 
Was in its nature lambent, pure 
And innocent as is the light, 
The glow-worm hangs out to allure 
Her mate to her green bower at night." 

That this theory is not altogether fanciful, has 
been proved; for "Olivier frequently caught the 
males, by holding the females in the palm of his 
hand."* The light perhaps serves some important 
purpose in the economy of the glow-worm ; for 
it has been noticed before the insect has assumed 
its perfect form, and while it was yet in the nympha y 
and even in the larva state. 

In that admirable " Introduction to Entomology," 
to which I have on more than one occasion already 
referred, I find the following passage relative to the 
insect now under consideration : — 

"If, living like me in a district where it is rarely met 
with, the first time you saw this insect chanced to be, 
as it was in my case, one of those delightful evenings 
which an English summer seldom yields, when not a 
breeze disturbs the balmy air, and " every sense is 
joy," and hundreds of these radiant worms, studding 
their mossy couch with mild effulgence, were pre- 
* Entomologia Edinensis, p. 206. 



NOT FOUND IN IRELAND. 89 

sented to your wondering eye in the course of a 
quarter of a mile, you could not help associating with 
the name of glow-worm the most pleasing recol- 
lections." * 

The glow-worm is not found in this neighbour- 
hood ; nor, so far as I have heard, has it yet been 
noticed in any part of Ireland. The first and only 
time I met with it, was in Scotland, towards the end 
of the summer of 1824, and amid circumstances very 
different from those described. With three friends, I 
had started at an early hour from the vicinity of Loch 
Katrine, walked over to the " Clachan o' Aberfoil," 
and sauntered along the romantic shores of Loch 
Ard, places which the pen of Sir Walter Scott has 
converted into classic ground. Delighted with the 
picturesque grandeur of the scenery, we neglected to 
note the "fleeting hours of time," and found our- 
selves, before we had gained the western side of 
Ben Lomond, benighted and without a guide. The 
morass abounded with deep fissures, which it required 
the utmost circumspection to avoid. Weary, hungry, 
and fearing every moment the result of some un- 
lucky step, we descended the mountain. It was now 
eleven o'clock, and part of the descent yet remained 
to be accomplished ; when all at once, on a shelving 
* Kirby and Spence, vol. ii. p. 410. 



90 FOUND ON BEN LOMOND. 

rock and on the adjoining heather, we saw for the 
first time the '■' mild effulgence" of the glow-worm. 
No one exclaimed with Evans, " Twenty glow-worms 
shall our lanthorns be ;" but the mind of each was 
roused by a new and interesting object : we felt 
pleased, cheered, invigorated, — pushed on with reno- 
vated spirit, and about midnight reached the little inn 
of Rowardennan. 

Let me now transport you by my " so potent art," 
from the shores of Loch Lomond to the bank of 
some murmuring rivulet, where 

" He makes sweet music with the enamell'd stones, 
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge 
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage ; " 

(Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act. II. Sc. VII.) 

and while you stray along the margin, and watch 
the streamlet, as 

" by many winding nooks he strays, 
With willing sport to the wild ocean;" 

let me beg your attention to some of the insects 

which sport upon the surface of the calm and quiet 

pools where it reposes in its course, and ask you in 

the words of Hamlet, 

" Dost know this water-fly?" 

You will find on a second glance that they are not 
all of the same kind, and that some of them belong 



WATER-FLY OF SHAKSPEARE. 91 

to the order Coleoptera. They are beetles less 
in size than those we have been considering, and 
dwelling not on the land, but in the water. On a 
sunny day, they may be seen on almost every pool, 
gliding with ease and rapidity in ceaseless circles, 
dimpling the glassy surface of the water, diving 
when disturbed, and carrying down with them a 
bubble of air shining like quicksilver. It would be 
difficult to say why Shakspeare uses the word water- 
fly as a term of reproach, and still more so, to ascer- 
tain if this little whirlwig was the insect alluded to. 
One of my fellow members has suggested that the 
ephemeras may be meant, as they fling off their pupa 
case with extreme rapidity, assume a new form, and 
exist for so brief an interval. But this conjecture, 
although ingenious, would scarcely be applicable to 
the passage in "Troilus and Cressida," 

" Ah ! how the poor world is pestered with such waterflies, diminu- 
tives of nature ! "—Act V. Sc. I. 

Nor would it agree with the manner in which the 
word is employed by Cleopatra, who, indeed, uses one 
term, now restricted to the flesh flies : — 

" Rather on Nilus' mud 

" Lay me stark naked, and let water-flies 
Blow me into abhorring." 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act V. Sc. III. 



92 VARIOUS SPECIES 

Another of our members lias supposed, with greater 
probability, that the Poet referred to some of the 
smaller gnats, whose dimensions and habits of annoy- 
ance would alike be legitimate subjects of allusion, 
in the mouth of Thersites, that " crusty botch of na- 
ture." If, however, it will not be admitted, that in- 
sects which pass their first stages in the waters are 
those alluded to, but that those only can be meant 
who are found there in their perfect state, the Gyrinus 
may be the one, although I can scarcely see in what 
way so frolicsome a little fellow can be branded with 
the term " pestered." It is possible, however, for 
none of the water insects seem to be more generally 
known. Mr. Knapp has justly remarked, "This plain, 
tiny, gliding water-flea, seems a very unlikely creature 
to arrest our young attention ; but the boy with his 
angle has not often much to engage his notice ; and 
the social, active parties of this nimble swimmer, 
presenting themselves at these periods of vacancy, 
become insensibly familiar to his sight, and by many 
of us are not observed in after-life, without recalling 
former hours."* I may, therefore, be justifiable in 
introducing to your notice this very amusing little 
insect, the Gyrinus natator, whose social little parties 
can scarcely be regarded without pleasure. It was 

* Journal of a Naturalist, p. 318, 3rd ed. 



OF GYRINUS. 9 3 

my good fortune, on one occasion, to observe an in- 
dividual of a different species in an unusual situa- 
tion — the inhabitant of a freshwater shell (Limneus 
pereger). When the shell was taken out of the 
pool, its mouth was filled with what appeared a 
mass of clay, but proved to be a fragment of some 
aquatic plant of suitable length, the space between 
it and the margin of the aperture being filled with 
slime. The interior of this mass was lined with a 
soft, whitish, silky substance, which extended to 
the edge of the aperture. The " hollow-wreathed 
chamber" of the shell was occupied by a living indi- 
vidual of Gyrinus villosus, an insect which, I believe, 
had not previously been taken in this neighbourhood. 
Its habits are solitary, being the very reverse of those 
of its merry little congener, the Gyrinus natator. 
Your observation would, perhaps, ascertain if those 
species undergo their transformation in different situ- 
ations, — if the one is always to be found beneath the 
water, while the cocoon of the other is suspended 
to the stem of some aquatic plant. Or you could, 
perhaps, prove, that in the present instance the in- 
sect, when about to undergo its transformation, had 
probably taken advantage of an empty shell which 
chance had thrown in its way, and had thus been 
saved the trouble of constructing the customary 



94 



ADAPTATION TO CIRCUMSTANCES. 



cocoon. Should this be so, it would furnish an in- 
teresting instance of that adaptation to circumstances 
which " man, proud man," is apt to regard as the 
concomitant and characteristic of reason alone, and 
would show that in the deviations of instinct, no 
lesr than in its ordinary operations, we may trace an 
Unseen Hand. 




fe^ 



** 



m* 



ml 



" Her waggon spokes made of long spinner's legs 
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers. 
The traces of the smallest spider's web. 
The collars of the moonshine's "watery beams. 
Her whip of cricket's bone." 

P.OMEO 4KB JULIET, t 



Such is the description of Queen Mab's equipage, 
a description now quoted, as in it the two insects 
which form the subject of my present letter, are both 
casually mentioned. The Grasshopper and the 
Cricket, for it is to those I allude, belong to tbe order 
Orthoptera. Both are insects known to every one by 
the sense of hearing, as well as that of sight. They 



96 NOTICES OF THE GRASSHOPPER. 

are not regarded with aversion, like some of the 
beetle tribe ; but are looked upon with feelings of 
forbearance, if not of kindliness, by all who have 
listened to their song. I have not, therefore, to be- 
speak your indulgence, while I transcribe from my 
note-book " the trivial fond records" relative to these 
insects, 

"That youth and observation copied there." 

The grasshopper is a universal favourite ; 

" He is an evening reveller, who makes 
His life an infancy, and sings his fill ;" 

and the ease of his movements, the extent of his 
spring, the variety of his colours, and the attractive 
nature of the objects among which he is found, all 
tend to increase his popularity. His song and his 
activity have both been noticed by Hogg, and intro- 
duced with pleasing effect in one of his minor poems, 
the Address to a Wild Deer : — 

" Elate on the fern branch the grasshopper sings, 
And away in the midst of his roundelay springs." 

Wordsworth has not passed unheeded the 

"jocund voice 
Of insects chirping out their careless lives 
On these soft beds of thyme-besprinkled turf." 

But I shall not at present dwell on these poetic 
sketches ; and as the cricket is an inhabitant of our 



CRICKETS HARBINGERS OF GOOD. 97 

houses, while the grasshopper is a dweller out of 
doors, I shall principally confine my observations to 
the former insect (Acheta domestica Lin.), and to 
others of the same genus. 

In this part of the country, it is a common belief 
that the appearance of crickets in a house is a good 
omen, and prognosticates cheerfulness and plenty. 
That this opinion is generally entertained, may be 
inferred from the manner in which it has been em- 
bodied by Cowper, in his Address to the Cricket 

" Chirping on his kitchen hearth. " 

His words are, — 

" Wheresoe'er be thine abode, 
Always harbinger of good." * 

'-' There needs no ghost from the grave, to tell us" 
that the error is a very common one, which attributes 
the actions of many of the inferior animals not to 
causes actually in operation, but to " coming events," 
which thus "cast their shadows before," and of 
' which these actions are the certain forerunners. Yet 
the notion, although prevalent, is altogether un- 
founded, and is opposed to every thing which either 
reason or observation teaches us concerning their 
habits. When swallows fly low, skimming along the 
ground or water, they are said to foretell a change 

* Translated from Vincent Browne. 

H 



98 ERROR OF THE POPULAR NOTION. 

of weather : but the fact is, the change has at that 
time commenced. Swallows feed upon insects, and 
alter their flight according to the different situations 
of their prey. Insects, in common with many of 
the inferior animals, appear to possess a nice percep- 
tion of changes in the atmosphere, which our feelings 
are not sufficiently sensitive to detect. They feel 
the change, and they act on that feeling. We do 
not feel it ; and are hence led into the error of sup- 
posing that their actions prognosticate a "coming 
event," when, in truth, they denote the existence of 
a series of meteoric phenomena, which has not only 
commenced, but is then actually in operation. To 
apply this remark to the subject under consideration — 
crickets take great delight in the warmth of a kitchen 
hearth, and they feast on yeast, crumbs of bread, 
milk, gravy, and all the waste and refuse of the fire- 
side. Their presence, therefore, does not denote that 
plenty is to come, but that it already exists, and they 
should, consequently, be regarded as the attendants, 
not as the harbingers, of comfort and abundance. 
Their domicile about our kitchen hearth is not always 
unaccompanied by damage ; for occasionally they gnaw 
holes in clothes which may be drying at the fire. 
This is done, not to revenge, as is commonly said, 
the injuries which the proprietor of these clothes has 
inflicted upon their tribe, but to gratify their thirsty 



THE CRICKET S MIRTHFUL CHIRP. 99 

palates with the moisture which the clothes at that 
time contain. 

To most people, the chirp of the cricket is, as 
Cowper has aptly expressed it, " full of mirth," and 
conveys to the mind the idea of a perfectly happy 
being. Thus, Poins in reply to the Prince's ques- 
tion — " Shall we be merry," makes use of this simile, 
" as merry as crickets." The learned Scaliger took 
such a fancy to their song, that he was accustomed 
to keep them in a box in his study. The Spaniards, 
we are told by Osbeck, confine some insects of an 
allied genus in cages, for the sake of their song.* "It 
is reported, that in some parts of Africa the common 
house crickets are kept and fed in a kind of iron 
oven, and sold to the natives, who like their chirp, 
and consider it a great soporific." f 

In our own country, they have been repeatedly 

noticed by those poets who describe things which 

they themselves have seen or heard, and particularly 

as connected with cheerfulness and mirth. Thus, 

Rogers, in his delightful poem of "Italy," addressing 

a being conceived by nature in " her merriest mood, 

her happiest," adds, 

" At thy birth the cricket chirp'd, Luigi, 
Thine a perpetual voice, at every turn 
A lanim to the echo." 

* Osbeck's Voy. i. 71, quoted by Kirby and Spence, vol. ii. p. 401. 
t Mouffet, Theatrum Insect. 136, (quoted in Insect Mis. p. 82.) 

H 2 



100 POETICAL NOTICES 

Cowper, if his own opinion coincides with that of 
Bourne, from whom he translates, did not deem it 
unworthy of 

" Such a song as lie could give;" 

and considers it superior to the grasshopper : — 

"Thou surpassest, happier far, 
Happiest grasshoppers that are ; 
Their's is but a summer song, 
Thine endures the winter long, 
Unimpair'd, and shrill and clear, 
Melody throughout the year." 

Yet Milton did not consider this mirth inconsistent 

with contemplation ; for " il Penseroso" desires to be 

" Far from all resort of mirth, 
Save the cricket on the hearth." 

It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the accord- 
ance, thus generally admitted, of the chirp of the 
cricket with gaiety and mirth, it is occasionally em- 
ployed by our poets in scenes of a completely oppo- 
site character. Its fitness for such scenes may be 
inferred from the manner in which it is introduced in 
Wharton's " Pleasures of Melancholy" : — 

" Far remote 

From mirth's mad shouts, that through the illumined roof 

Resound with festive echo, let me sit, 

Blest with the lowly cricket's drowsy dirge." 

Lady Macbeth, in replying to the question of her 
husband after the murder of Duncan, says — 
"I heard the owls scream, and the crickets cry." 



OF THE CRICKET. 101 

In the play of " Cymbeline," where, at midnight, 
Iachimo commences his survey of the chamber where 
Imogen lies sleeping, his first words refer to the 
chirping of crickets, rendered audible by the repose 
which at that moment prevailed throughout the 
palace : — 

" The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd sense 
Repairs itself by rest."— Act II. f>c. II. 

And in Hogg's " Pilgrims of the Sun," " the cricket's 
call" is introduced into one of the most solemn pas- 
sages in the poem — the part where Mary, in her 
shroud and funeral vestment, returns to Carelha. 



; A dim haze shrouded every sight, 
Each hair had life, and stood upright ; 
No sound was heard throughout the hall, 
Cut the beat of the heart, and the cricket's call.' 



But the song of the cricket has done more than 
supply material to the poet for heightening the effect 
of his mirthful or his tragic scenes. On one occa- 
sion, if we may credit the historian, the song of an 
insect of this genus was the means of saving a vessel 
from shipwreck. The incident evinces the perilous 
situation of Cabeza de Vara, in his voyage towards 
Brazil, and is related by Dr. Southey in his history 
of that country ; — 

" When they had crossed the Line, the state of the 



102 SHIPWRECK AVERTEU BY IT. 

water was inquired into, and it was found, that of a 
hundred casks there remained but three, to supply 
four hundred men and thirty horses. Upon this, 
the Adelantado gave orders to make the nearest land. 
Three days they stood towards it. A soldier, who 
set out in ill health, had brought a grillo, or ground- 
cricket, with him from Cadiz, thinking to be amused 
by the insect's voice; but it had been silent the 
whole way, to his no little disappointment. Now, 
on the fourth morning, the grillo began to sing its 
shrill rattle, scenting, as was immediately supposed, 
the land. Such was the miserable watch which had 
been kept, that upon looking out at the warning, 
they perceived high rocks within bow- shot ; against 
which, had it not been for the insect, they must in- 
evitably have been lost. They had just time to drop 
anchor. From hence they coasted along, the grillo 
singing every night, as if it had been on shore, till 
they reached the island of St. Catalina."* 

The cricket does not pass its entire existence about 
our hearths. Like other denizens of the town, it 
delights occasionally to take an excursion during the 
summer, and at such times may be heard singing 
its vesper song in company with another species, 
which is always a denizen of the fields (Acheta cam- 
pestris). The Rev. Gilbert White, in his delightful 
* " Penny Magazine," November 3, 1832. 



ITS SHYNESS. 103 

" Natural History of Selbome," has made both 
species the subject of some observations, written, in 
that pleasing and unostentatious spirit by which all 
his writings are pervaded : — " Sounds do not always 
give us pleasure according to their sweetness and 
melody, nor do harsh sounds always displease." We 
are more apt to be captivated or disgusted with the 
associations which they promote, than with the notes 
themselves. " Thus, the shrilling of the field- cricket, 
though sharp and stridulous, yet marvellously delights 
some hearers, filling their minds with a train of sum- 
mer ideas, of every thing that is rural, verdurous, 
and joyous." * 

The same author remarks, " they are so shy and 
cautious, it is no easy matter to get a sight of them ; 
for, feeling a person's footsteps as he advances, they 
stop short in the midst of their song, and retire 
backward nimbly into their burrows, where they lurk 
until all suspicion of danger is over." 

It is not, however, the " feeling" of an approach- 
ing step, indicated by the vibratory motion of the 
ground, which alone possesses the power of stilling 
their chirping : any tolerably loud sound will produce 
a similar effect. This fact has been established by 
modern observations on the habits of insects ; but as 
it has been recorded by the Ettrick Shepherd, in his 

* Page 349, ed. 1837. 



104 AMUSING EXPERIMENT UPON IT. 

romantic tale of Mary Scott, I shall give his verses 
precedence, on the principle mentioned by Tasso — 

" clie '1 vero condito in molli versi 

I piu schieri allettando ha persuaso." 

" The warder lists with fear and dread 
For distant shout of fray begun ; 
The cricket tunes his tiny reed, 
And harps behind the embers dun. 

" Why does the warder bend his head, 
And silent stand the casement near? 
The cricket stops his little reed, 
The sound of gentle step to hear." 

One example may perhaps be deemed sufficient 
to show that the circumstance mentioned at the con- 
clusion of the last verse is correct. " Brunelli, an 
Italian naturalist, kept several of the field-crickets 
in a chamber. They continued their crinking song 
through the whole day ; but the moment they heard 
a knock at the door, they were silent. He subse- 
quently invented a method of imitating their sounds, 
and when he did so outside the door, at first a few 
would venture upon a soft whisper, and by and bye, 
the whole party burst out in chorus to answer him ; 
but upon repeating the rap at the door, they instantly 
stopped again, as if alarmed. He likewise confined 
a male in one side of his garden, while he put a 
female in the other at liberty, which began to leap as 
soon as she heard the crink of the male, and imme- 



MANNER OF PRODUCING ITS NOTE. 105 

diately came to him, — an experiment which he fre- 
quently repeated with the same result." * 

Those facts show that Linnseus and Bonnet were 
incorrect in denying that insects can hear at all ; and 
that Shakspeare has evinced his usual accuracy of 
discrimination, when he says, in the "Winter's 
Tale," 

" I will tell it softly; 
Yon crickets shall not hear me." 

Act II. Sc. I. 

After so many quotations descriptive of the song 
of the cricket, shall I be credited when I state, that 
he has no song, in our acceptation of the term, — 
that is, no peculiar note, produced, like the human 
voice, or the song of birds, by the modulation of 
vocal organs, or by air expelled from the mouth ? 
And yet, the chirp of the cricket, the drowsy hum of 
the beetle, the buzzing of the fly, the humming of 
the bee, are all sounds produced without, what may 
be properly termed, voice. 

In the beetle, they are probably caused by the 
friction of the wing-cases (elytra) at the base of the 
wings, throwing them into a strong vibratory motion. 
Some species of grasshoppers effect a similar object, 
by rubbing the elytra with the right and left legs 

* Comment. Instit. Bonon., vii. 199, &c. apud Lehmann. Quoted 
by Rennie, Insect Miscellanies, p. 77. 



106 MENTIONED IN HOLY WRIT. 

alternately ; and the loudness of the sound is aug- 
mented by a deep cavity on each side of the body, 
in which there is a drum, or little membrane, in a 
state of tension. In the cricket, the apparatus con- 
sists of strong nervures or rough strings in the wing- 
cases, by the friction of which against each other a 
sound is produced, and communicated to the mem- 
branes stretched between them. The males only 
are gifted with these musical powers, and as the 
little areolets into which their wing-cases are divided 
are larger than those in the female, they present, 
under the microscope, an interesting subject for 
observation. 

To you, my dear friend, I shall not attempt to 
enumerate the various passages scattered throughout 
the Holy Scriptures, in which grasshoppers are men- 
tioned. I shall only remind you of the fact, that 
these insects, along with locusts and beetles, are 
among the animals allowed to be eaten under the 
Mosaical dispensation. The words in which the 
permission is conveyed are striking to the Entomo- 
logist, as showing that three species of insects belong- 
ing to the order (Orthoptera) now under consider- 
ation, were recognized as distinct. The words occur 
in Leviticus (chap. xi. ver. 20 — 23.) 

" 20. All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomi- 
nation unto you. 



BRITISH SPECIES OF THE LOCUST. 107 

" 21. Yet these may ye eat, of every flying, creeping- thing which 
goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal 
upon the earth. 

" 22. Even these of them may ye eat. The locust after his kind, 
and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and 
the grasshopper after his kind. 

" 23. But all other flying things which have four feet shall be an 
abomination unto you." 

To the insect emphatically distinguished as the 
locust, and whose ravages have been among the 
most awful visitations of other lands, I find no allu- 
sion throughout the Dramatic "Works of Shakspeare. 
In fact, the word "locust" occurs but once, and then 
is introduced in such a manner as to show it is the 
vegetable production that is meant. " Fill thy purse 
with money," says Iago to Roderigo; " the food that 
to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him 
shortly as bitter as coloquintida." 

As, in these countries, we happily enjoy an ex- 
emption from the devastation occasioned by these 
insects, you will, perhaps, not be prepared to expect, 
that twenty-three species of locust are now enume- 
rated as British. The last specimen which I believe 
has been recorded,* is one which was exhibited at a 
meeting of our society, and was captured by Miss 
Ball, at Ardmore, county of "Waterford, Sept. 1835. 
It was of a species first described by Mr. Curtis, and 
named Locusta Christii, after Wm. Christy, esq., by 

* Curtis's Illustrations of British Entomology, Aug. 1836, p. 608. 



108 



THE CRICKET NOT PUGNACIOUS. 



whom it had been taken in a garden near London, in 
July, 1826. 

Grasshoppers do not when in a state of freedom 
appear to attack their own kindred, although they do 
so when they are confined together. Being desirous 
of ascertaining if a similar propensity prevailed 
among crickets, I took four, and confined them for 
eighteen hours without food, yet no one among 
them inflicted the slightest injury on his fellow-pri- 
soners. I gave them their freedom ; and on the 
succeeding day took six others, differing very much 




Blatta orientalis, Male and Female. 



in apparent size and strength, and kept them in 'a 
glass for forty hours, yet the same result precisely 



STRUCTURE OF ITS FOOT. 109 

took place. To put the question of their cannibalism 
to a still more conclusive test, I next took two 
crickets and two cockroaches (Blatta orientalis), and 
confined them for eighty hours in a similar manner ; 
at the expiration of that period they were all living 
and active, and had not suffered from any attack on 
each other. 

During the time these unfortunate crickets were 
in confinement, I observed that they repeatedly tried 
to climb up the sides of the glass, but always in 
vain, falling backwards at each successive attempt. 
This appeared to me singular, as I had watched a 
grasshopper (Locusta grossa) walking up the glass 
pane of a window, and I knew no reason why 
crickets should not be able to do the same. But to 
reason from analogy, is a very uncertain mode of 
arriving at just conclusions in Natural History. I 
believe it is Dr. Fleming who remarks, that no person 
from seeing the fallow-deer feeding on graminivorous 
plants, could ever have imagined from analogy, that 
the reindeer fed upon a lichen. The conclusion I 
drew respecting the cricket, was as erroneous as the 
analogical inference in the other case would have 
been, and it showed me the propriety of subjecting 
every thing relating to the economy of insects to the 
test of personal observation, so far as circumstances 
will permit of our doing so. On examining, there- 



110 THE TETTIX. 

fore, with a microscope, the foot of the cricket, to 
ascertain if in this respect there was any difference 
in structure, I found it perfectly smooth, and ter- 
minating in a double book ; but that of the grass- 
hopper was not only furnished with a hook, but 
likewise with three cushions or suckers. This form- 
ation enables us to explain how it takes hold of the 
stems of grass when it springs, and also how its 
hold is retained. In such a situation, it has attracted 
the eye of the poet already quoted, and been thus 
described : — 

" The grasshopper sits idle on the stalk 
With folded pinions, and forgets to sing." 

Before quitting this part of my subject, I may 
mention, that the insect so celebrated by the Grecian 
bards, under the name Tettix, is not a grasshopper, 
as the word is commonly translated, but belongs to a 
totally different order (Homoptera) . With the pecu- 
liar covering in which one insect of this order is at a 
certain period enveloped, you are doubtless familiar. 
I allude to the little frothy appearance so frequently 
seen on plants during the summer months, and 
known by the common appellation of cuckoo-spit. It 
is an exudation proceeding from the larva of Tettigonia 
spumaria, which by this contrivance obtains, at the 
same time, concealment from its various enemies, and 
protection from the vicissitudes of weather. 



ESTEEMED BY THE ATHENIANS. Ill 

Of the musical cicadas, one species has been dis- 
covered in England. Like its classic congener, it be- 
longs to the same family as the clamorous catydids 
of North America, and is distinguished in Entomo- 
logy by the term Cicada, the very word which is em- 
ployed by Virgil, — 

" Cantu querulae rumpent arbusta cicadae. "—Geor. III. 328. 
The conclusion of Byron's notice of the grass- 
hopper, while he chirps " one good-night carol 
more," has been already quoted ; that of the cicada 
should likewise be brought before you, to show the 
accuracy with which he has distinguished the one 
insect from the other : — 

" The shrill cicadas, people of the pine, 
Making their summer lives one ceaseless song." 

The Athenians, as you are aware, wore in their 
hair golden images of this insect. To excel it in 
singing, was the highest commendation of a singer ; 
nor was it considered derogatory to the orator to be 
compared to the cicada. Instead, however, of any 
longer bestowing " my tediousness upon you," I 
shall reward your present attention by transmitting 
a very spirited Ode of Anacreon, addressed to this 
insect, and which has been very happily translated : — 

" Happy Cicada, perch'd on lofty branches, 
Deep in the forest, cheerful as a monarch, 
Tasting the dew-drops, making all the mountains 
Echo thy chirping. 



112 ODE OF ANACREON TO IT. 

" Thine is each treasure that the earth produces ; 
Thine is the freshness of each field and forest ; 
Thine are the fruits, and thine are all the flowers, 
Balmy spring scatters. 

" Husbandmen fondly dote upon thy friendship, 
Knowing thee guiltless of a thought to harm them. 
Thee, mortals honour, sweet and tuneful songster, 
Prophet of summer. 

" Thee, all the Muses hail a kindred being ; 
Thee, great Apollo owns a dear companion : 
Oh ! it was he who gave that note of gladness, 
Wearisome never. 

" Song-skilful, earth-born, mirth and music loving ; 
Fairy-like being, free from age and suffering ; 
Passionless, and pure from earth's defilement, 
Almost a spirit. 

" Drunk with the dew-drop, perch'd on twig so lofty, 
Noisy Cicada, o'er the wild wave sounding, 
Saw-like the feet which to thy side thou pressest, 

Drawing sweet music." * 

* Entomological Magazine. 





r>- e 







«*8« 




' They have a king and officers of sorts. 
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home 
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad. 



In addressing these letters to you, my object is not 
to eulogise the writings of Shakspeare, but to bring 
before you the habits of such insects as he has 
named ; at least, so far as may be necessary for the 
elucidation of the passages in which they occur. 
Justly does he remark — 

" "Tis seldom -when the bee doth leave her comb 
In the dead carrion ;"— (Second Part Hen. IV., Act. IV. Sc. IV.) 

an observation which will naturally recall to your 
mind the passage in which we learn from the Scrip-. 

i 



114 SWARMING OF BEES. 

ture, that Samson found " a swarm of bees and honey 
in the carcase of the lion." But, seldom as any thing of 
the kind does occur in this kingdom, it did happen on 
one occasion in the county of Down, if some species 
of wasp has not been mistaken for bees. The fact is 
rcorded in the following words, extracted from the 
Belfast News Letter, of Friday, 10th August, 1832 :— 
" A few days ago, when the sexton was digging a 
grave in Temple Cranney (a burying-place in Porta- 
ferry), he came to a coffin which had been there two 
or three years : this he thought necessary to remove, 
to make room for the corpse about to be interred. 
In this operation, he was startled by a great quantity 
of wild bees issuing forth from the coffin, and upon 
lifting the lid, it was found that they had formed 
their combs in the dead man's skull and mouth, which 
were full. The nest was made of the hair of the 
head, together with shavings that had been put in 
the coffin with the corpse." 

Every hive contains a queen, drones, and workers ; 
of these different kinds, Shakspeare seems cognizant. 
Thus the lines-^- 

"Like stinging bees in hottest summer's day, 
Led by their master to the flowered fields"— 

(Titus Andronicus, Act V. Sc. I.) 
recognize the first : 

" Drones hive not with me," 

the second ; and any of the numerous passages 



THE QUEEN BEE. 115 

describing their labours, show his knowledge of the 
third. 

" So work the honey bees ; 

Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach 

The art of order to a peopled kingdom. 

They have a king- and officers of sorts, 

Where some, like magistrates, correct at home ; 

Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad; 

Others, bike soldiers, armed in their stings, 

Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds, 

Which pillage they with merry march bring home 

To the tent royal of their emperor ; 

Who, busied in his majesty, surveys 

The singing masons building roofs of gold ; 

The civil citizens kneading up the honey ; 

The poor mechanic porters crowding in 

Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate ; 

The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, 

Delivering o'er to executors pale 

The lazy yawning drone." — Henry V., Act I. Sc. II. 

Such is the splendid description given by Shaks- 
peare of the economy of a bee-hive, — a description 
poetical in the highest degree, and pleasing alike to 
the ear and the imagination. In it, without apparent 
effort, we have a rich and glowing picture. The 
artist, with his accustomed skill, has " o'erstepped 
not the modesty of nature ;" and yet the simile is 
sustained, animated, and vigorous throughout. 

It is the queen bee, you are aware, that seems to 
regulate the industry and preserve the equilibrium of 
the denizens of the hive ; and to her, Shakspeare, 
like the ancients, invariably applies a male epithet. 
When by any accident she is destroyed, the social, 

i2 



116 THE DRONES. 

compact appears for a time to be dissolved, anarchy 
and disorder succeed to the former regular and 
systematic exertion, and a strange and fiery excite- 
ment pervades the population. Most correctly, there- 
fore, does Shakspeare introduce the comparison, 

" The commons, like a hive of angry bees 
That want their leader, scatter up and down." 

Second Part Henry IV., Act III. Sc. II. 

The drones, it is now well known, are the males of 
the community, destroyed by the workers when no 
longer required ; but preserved uninjured while the 
welfare of the hive requires the continuance of their 
existence. It is, perhaps, to the slaughter of the 
drones, which takes place towards the end of sum- 
mer, that the Poet alludes in the figurative expression, 

"The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, 
Delivering o'er to executors pale 
The lazy yawning drone." 

There is nothing in the writings of Shakspeare to 

imply that he was aware of the precise nature of the 

functions of the drone-bees ; nay, on one occasion, he 

introduces the word " drone" in a manner that must 

be regarded as incorrect : — 

" Drones suck not eagle's blood, but rob bee-hives ; " 

(Second Part Henry VI., Act IV. Sc. I.) 

the robbery being a crime of which they cannot be 
accused, although it may justly be charged against 



HUMMING OF THE BEE. 117 

wasps, with whom they have, perhaps, in this pas- 
sage, been confounded. Milton's notice is not per- 
fectly accurate either ; for he throws the feeding of 
the drones, and the forming of the cells, on the queen, 
and not on the workers ; or, if he mean the working 
bee, the term "husband" is inapplicable. 

" Swarming, next appeared 

The female bee, that feeds her husband drone 
Deliriously, and builds her waxen cell 
With honey stored."— Par. Lost, Book VII. 

The immortal author of "Paradise Lost" has in 
another passage, without derogating from the gran- 
deur or beauty of his theme, sung 

" how the bee, 

Sits on the bloom, extracting liquid sweet." 

Perhaps nothing can convey a better idea of the 
joyous feelings connected with the humming of the 
bee, than the fact that it is mentioned by so many of 
our British poets — introduced amid their finest pro- 
ductions, and connected with the beauty and the 
exuberance of summer. 

" Hark ! the bee winds her small, but mellow horn, 
Blithe to salute the sunny smile of morn ;" 

is the description given by Rogers. 

" The sycamore, all musical with bees," 

is the harmonious line of Coleridge. It is introduced 
as a simile in Hogg's " Pilgrims of the Sun :" — 



118 POETICAL NOTICES OF IT. 

" As they pass'd by 

The angels paused, and saints that lay reposed 
In bowers of Paradise, upraised their heads 
To list the passing music, for it went 
Swift as the wild bee's note, that on the wing 
Booms like unbodied voice along the gale." 

In the sweet and artless poem, by Wilson, of "Bessie 
Bell and Mary Gray," it is thus noticed : — 

"And from the hidden flowers, a song 
Of bees in a happy multitude, 
All busy in that solitude." 

Milton, in his " Penseroso," has connected the hum 
of the bee with the murmuring of the waters : — 

Hide me from day's garish eye, 
While the bee with honied thigh, 
That at her flowery work doth sing, 
And the waters murmuring, 
With such concert as they keep, 
Entice the dewy-feather'd sleep." 

In the enumeration of the " melodies of morn," in 
Beattie's " Minstrel," the picturesque image of 

"The wild brook babbling down the mountain side," 

does not impart greater pleasure to the mind, than 
the more humble objects in another line, — 

"The hum of bees, the linnet's lay of love." 

In one of Byron's stanzas, in which the poet has 
grouped together a collection of pleasing objects and 
of simple sounds, which neither in beauty nor variety 



THE "BAG 0' THE BEE." 119 

have ever been surpassed, he thus concludes the 
verse : — 

" Sweet the hum' 

Of bees, the voice of girls, the song of birds, 
The lisp of children, and their earliest words." 

Shakspeare's knowledge of bees does not seem to 
have been limited to the three kinds which consti- 
tute the "buzzing pleased multitude" found in our 
bee-hives ; he has noticed those which are solitary in 
their habits, as well as those which are social. Thus 
we find in " All's Well that Ends Well," "red-tailed 
humble-bee," a kind which nidificates among heaps 
of stones. The humble-bee is introduced on another 
occasion, when Bottom, in the " Midsummer Night's 
Dream," is giving orders to his fairy attendants. 
The playful and sportive fancy which reigns in 
these commands is inimitable; and the diminutive 
stature of Cobweb is well indicated by the fear that 
he should be " overflown with a honey bag." Haz- 
litt was so well pleased with the passage, that in his 
" Characters of Shakspeare's Plays," he quotes the 
commencement of it, and remarks, with a note of 
admiration, " What an exact knowledge of Natural 
History is here shown ; " although every boy who 
has spent his summer holidays in the country, is 
well acquainted with the " bag o' the bee. " This 
bag is, in fact, the first stomach of the insect. Into 



120 PRODUCTS OF ITS LABOURS. 

it the liquid honey which is collected by the tongue 
flows, after passing through the mouth and oesopha- 
gus. It is a membranous receptacle, capable of con- 
siderable distension, and exhibiting a different aspect, 
according to the quantity it contains of that saccharine 
fluid, which is there converted into honey. 

Next to " the bag o' the bee," I may naturally 
notice the products derived from the labours of the 
same insect. These are principally wax and honey ; 
both of which are mentioned by Shakspeare. The 
former is brought forward as being the material em- 
ployed for the sealing, not of letters only, but of 
bonds and other legal instruments. Thus Cade, 
after having declared that he will " make it felony to 
drink small beer," and announced his intentions rela- 
tive to other legislative enactments of a correspond- 
ing character, proceeds in a strain admirably illustra- 
tive of the man : — 

" Is not this a lamentable thing, that the skin of an innocent lamb 
should be made of parchment, and that parchment being scribbled 
o'er, should undo a man. Some say the bee stings ; but I say 'tis 
the bee's wax : for I did but seal once to a thing, and I was never my 
own man since."— Second Part Henry VI., Act IV. Sc. II. 

When Edgar has overcome the steward of Goneril, 
he takes from his pockets the letters confided to his 
charge ; and as he breaks the seal, he justifies to 
himself the act he is committing : — 



bee's- WAX. 121 

" Leave, gentle wax, and manners, blame us not ; 
To know our enemies' minds, we 'd rip their hearts ; 
Their papers are more lawful."— Lear, Act IV. Sc. VI. 

It is again mentioned, -when Imogen, the fond and 
faithful Imogen, receives a letter from her lord Leo- 
natus ; her words are — 

" Good wax, thy leave,— blest be 
Yon bees, that make these locks of counsel ! Lovers 
And men in dangerous bonds pray not alike ; 
Though forfeiters you cast in prison yet, 
You clasp young Cupid's tables." 

Cymbeline, Act III. Sc. II. 

You are of course aware, that the sealing-wax we 
now employ consists of lac and resin, combined with 
some suitable pigment for giving it the desired colour. 
This lac is itself an insect product, being secreted 
by a species of coccus common in the East Indies. 
No portion of bees'-wax enters into the composition 
of the material now used for sealing letters ; but that 
it may at a former period have been so used, I will not 
presume to deny. At present, it forms the principal 
ingredient of the soft and colourless wax attached to 
letters patent under the Great Seal, or to charters of 
corporations, and public documents of a similar 
character ; but " the lover, sighing like furnace," 
never confides his sorrows to the custody of the 
bee's wax. 

The researches of modern times have ascertained 



122 OBSERVATIONS OF HUBER. 

a remarkable fact relative to the formation of this 
substance, namely, that it is secreted by bees differ- 
ent from those which attend to the feeding of the 
young ; or, in other words, the working bees, which 
were formerly supposed to be all alike, may be divided 
into two classes, — wax- workers and nurses. 

For our knowledge on this subject, we are princi- 
pally indebted to the observations of a blind man, 
the elder Huber, who made the study of bees the 
occupation and solace of many years of visual dark- 
ness. This he was enabled to do by the untiring at- 
tention of his wife, who faithfully recounted the 
phenomena which glass hives, variously constructed, 
enabled her to witness. He saw by means of her 
eyes, and in his experiments, he was assisted by a 
patient investigator, M. Burnens. From Huber we 
learn that wax is not collected from flowers, as was 
formerly supposed, but is secreted by the wax- work- 
ers by means of peculiar organs, which may easily be 
seen, by pressing the abdomen so as to cause its dis- 
tension. It is not, however, a secretion that is con- 
stantly going on ; it is one which takes place only 
when wax is required for the construction of the 
comb. To supply it, the wax- workers are obliged to 
feed on honey, and to remain inactive, generally sus- 
pended from the top of the hive, for about twenty- 
four hours previous to the deposition of the wax. 



HOXEY. 123 

What we read, therefore, of the bee collecting wax 
and carrying it to the hive, is fabulous. The error 
originated in the pollen with which bees are so fre- 
quently laden, and which forms the bee bread of the 
community, being mistaken for two little pellets of 
wax, which the industrious insect was supposed to 
have gathered. Shakspeare, as might be expected, 
has adopted the universal, though incorrect, opinion 
of his day. In the line, therefore, 

" Our thighs are pack'd with wax"— 

we recognize one of those instances, where the 
knowledge of the present time can be contrasted ad- 
vantageously with that of the past. 

The word "honey" is of frequent occurrence. 
When, in the English camp at Agincourt, King 
Henry the Fifth, after the just and profound re- 
flection — 

" There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 
Would men observingly distil it out ;"— 

illustrates his meaning still further, by the observa- 
tion — 



: Thus we may gather honey from the weed." 

Act IV. Sc. I. 



When Friar Lawrence is waiting in his cell, for the 
arrival of Juliet, and is endeavouring to control the 



124 FREQUENTLY MENTIONED BY SHAKSPEARE. 

transport of the expecting Romeo, he well re- 
marks, — 

"These violent delights have violent ends ; " 

and adds — 

" the sweetest honey 

Is loathsome in his own deliciousness, 
And in the taste confounds the appetite ; 
Therefore, love moderately."— Act II. Sc. V. 

But in general, the word is used metaphorically, not 

literally. Thus Norfolk, in speaking of Cardinal 

Wolsey, says, — 

" the king hath found 

Matter against him, that for ever mars 
The honey of his language." 

Henri/ VIIL, Act III. Sc. II. 

And in the scene where Ophelia has borne the strange 

and ungentle language of Hamlet, " get thee to a 

nunnery," after her first thought, with all a woman's 

fondness, has been given to his mental aberration: — 

"O ! what a noble mind is here o'erthrown ; " 

she deplores her own condition, in the words, — 

" And I of ladies most abject and wretched, 
That suck'd the honey of his music vows. " 

Act III. Sc. II. 

In the same manner the word is employed by 

Romeo, on his descent into the monument where lies 

the " living corse " of the " fair Juliet." 

" O my love ! my wife ! 

Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath, 

Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty."— Act V. Sc. III. 



SYMMETRY OF THE HONEY- COMB. 125 

Not content with using the word both in a literal and 
in a metaphorical sense, the Poet has interwoven it 
into several endearing epithets, as "honey love;" 
" honey nurse," &c. ; and in " Julius Caesar," the still 
more euphonious expression, — 

" Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber. "— Act II. Sc. I. 

The admirable symmetry and regularity of the 
combs have, no doubt, attracted your attention ; 
but perhaps you are not aware, that their form is 
almost that which a mathematician would select to 
combine the greatest extent of accommodation and 
greatest strength, with the smallest expenditure of 
material. The cells are arranged so close together, 
and in a manner so skilful, that no space is lost 
between them. The knowledge of the fact, that 
there are no vacant spaces between the cells, gives 
increased effect to the words of Prospero, when he 
replies to the imprecations of Caliban : — 

" Thou shalt be pinch'd 

As thick as honey-combs : each pinch more stinging 
Than bees that made 'em." 

Tempest, Act I. Sc. II. 

This passage refers to a fact in the economy of bees, 
which I have not yet noticed : I mean their power 
of stinging. Of this fact, almost every one has, 



126 STING OF THE BEE. 

at some time or other, had painful experience. 
Shakspeare says — 

" Full merrily the humble bee doth sing, 
Till she hath lost her honey and her sting;"— 

(Troilus and Cressida, Act V. Sc. XI.) 

a couplet which leads us to infer that the Poet was 
well aware of these insects losing their sting, by 
being unable to retract it from the wound they have 
inflicted. 

In the sarcasms to which Brutus and Cassius give 
utterance against Antony, the same topic is thus 
introduced : — 

" Cos.— The posture of your blows are yet unknown ; 
But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees, 
And leave them honeyless. 

Ant.— Not stingless too— 

Bru. — O yes, and soundless too ; 
For you have stol'n their buzzing, Antony, 
And very wisely threat before you sting." 

Julius Casar, Act V. Sc. I. 

From the numerous passages in which the bee 
is introduced, we might almost be warranted in 
supposing that this insect was a favourite with 
Shakspeare. It has certainly furnished him with 
numerous similes, and what is rather remarkable in 
a writer possessed of such varied powers of illustra- 
tion, he has caused it to be twice mentioned by King 
Henry the Fourth, in the course of one scene, — first, 
when meditating on the wild and riotous life pursued 



MURDER OF THESE INSECTS. 127 

by the Prince ; and secondly, when he supposes that 
the anxiety felt by Ids son for the crown had caused 
its removal from his pillow. The first of these 
passages has been already noticed ; the second, I 
shall now quote : — 

" How quickly nature falls into revolt, 
When gold becomes her object. 
For this, the foolish over-careful fathers 
Have broke their sleeps with thought, their brains with care, 
When, like the bee, tolling from every flower 
The virtuous sweets, 

Our thighs are pack'd with wax, our mouths with honey : 
We bring it to the hive ; and, like the bees, 
Are murder'd for our pains." 

Second Part Henry VI., Act IV. Sc. IV. 

The mode in which this murder is committed, is in- 
dicated by Shakspeare in another passage. Talbot 
is giving vent to his surprise and vexation at the 
English troops being repulsed by Joan of Arc : — 

" As bees with smoke, and doves with noisome stench, 
Are from their hives and houses driven away." 

First Part Henry VI., Act I. Sc. V. 

In Thomson's " Autumn," we have a detailed 
account of the process. The hive has been " at 
evening snatched," and " placed o'er sulphur." 

"Sudden the dark oppressive steam ascends, 
And, used to milder scents, the tender race 
By thousands tumble from their honied domes, 
Convolved and agonizing in the dust." 

It is much to be regretted, that when we could so 



128 PLANS FOR AVOIDING IT. 

easily obtain the honey of the hive-bees without de- 
stroying these industrious insects, the practice of put- 
ting them to death should still be continued. It is 
both cruel to the bees and injurious to the honey. 
The practice may easily be avoided ; for a very simple 
contrivance is sufficient for the purpose. Some hives, 
which I have seen in the garden of a friend, had a 
few inches taken horizontally off their summit ; over 
this aperture, a board was fitted, with holes for the 
passage of the bees, and a tin slide to close these 
holes when necessary. Above this, a small hive was 
placed : this, which could be removed at pleasure, 
was filled by the bees with honey of the finest kind, 
and the lower hive contained their winter store, and 
their youthful progeny. 

Boxes of various kinds, for the same humane 
object, have been invented, and are described in 
various works. The neatest I have seen are those 
belonging to my friend, Thomas Jackson, Esq., o£ 
this town, one of the architects under whose super- 
intendence our Museum was erected. A small room 
in the back part of his dwelling-house was appro- 
priated to his bees, who entered the boxes prepared 
for their reception by a covered passage, communi- 
cating with the external air by means of an aperture 
cut in a pane of glass for their reception. Outside 
of the window was a board, on which they alighted 



BEEHIVE IN BELFAST. 129 

prior to their entrance, and which thus corresponded 
to " the suburb of their straw-built citadel," in the 
ordinary hive. As far as the eye could reach, nothing 
but the roofs of small houses could be seen, except 
where the vision was bounded and closed in by the 
walls of other edifices of a more lofty structure. It 
seemed wonderful how, amid such a multitude of 
houses, the bees could find then way back to the one 
from which they issued. The theory propounded by 
Rogers, in his " Pleasures of Memory," that it is by 
retracing 

" The varied scents which charm'd them as they flew," 

would certainly be insufficient to explain the pheno- 
menon. There was nothing wavering or uncertain 
in their homeward flight. In fact, from the moment 
they appeared in view, their course was in a direct 
line to their elevated abode, and so straight and rapid, 
that they resembled bodies projected by some power- 
ful machine. 

The gardens, meadows, and hedge-rows about 
town, no doubt, supply to these bees the materials for 
the prosecution of "their delicious task." 

" Through the soft air the busy nations fly, 
Cling' to the bud, and with inserted tube 
Suck its pure essence, its ethereal soul." 

Thomson'* Spring. 



130 GLASS HIVES. 

The beach along the shores of our bay renders, per- 
haps, some assistance, by the salt which it affords ; 
for I have often seen bees on the margin of the sea, 
and understand, that they thrive well along the entire 
of the northern coast, from Belfast to the Causeway. 
The Cavehill, however, a mountain, which, at a dis- 
tance of about three miles from town, rises to the 
height of 1100 feet, holds out, on its heathery and 
uncultivated sides, richer attractions : — 

" And oft, with bolder wing, they soaring 1 dare 
The purple heath, or where the wild thyme grows, 
And yellow load them with the luscious spoil." 

Thomson'* Spring. 

A glass bell, placed upon the top of the bee-box, or 
glass hive, for I know not which is the more proper 
term, is soon filled with honey. The comb is remark- 
able for its whiteness and transparency, and the 
honey seems to be of the finest and purest kind. 
Mr. Jackson's father has several glass hives of a 
similar construction, at Waterford; and has, on 
different occasions, obtained two shillings and six- 
pence a pound for a glass bell and its contained 
honey. One bell produced, at this price, three 
pounds seventeen shillings and six pence ; and 
two others about three pounds thirteen shillings each, 
having been purchased by a druggist in Bristol, as a 
substitute for the celebrated honey of Narbonne. 



WILD BEES IN AMERICA. 131 

It is curious how places have become famed for one 
production, and continue to be so, while the genera- 
tions of man pass away ; nay, while the very laws 
and institutions of the country have been overthrown. 
A feeble plant may thus, in its descendants, survive 
the "wreck of empires," for Nature is ever fresh, 
vigorous, and unchanged, while human monuments 
crumble into dust. While Greece, at the present 
time, 

" Is Greece, but living Greece no more ;" 

the honey of Hymettus retains all its former celebrity. 
Athens is no longer the abode of arts, eloquence, 
literature, or science, — but 

" still his honied wealth Hymettus yields ; 

There the blythe bee his fragrant fortress builds ; 
The free-born wanderer of the mountain air." 

Childe Harold, Canto II. St. 87. 

Washington Irving, in his " Tour on the Prairies," 
has given a very animated description of a bee-hunt 
in one of the great American forests, and states, in 
the following words, a remarkable opinion, which is 
held concerning the wild bees : — " The Indians con- 
sider them the harbingers of the white man ; and 
say, that in proportion as the bee advances, the In- 
dians and the buffalo retire. We are always accus- 
tomed to associate the hum of the bee-hive with the 

k 2 



132 PLEASING ASSOCIATIONS. 

farm-house and the flower-garden, and to consider 
those industrious little animals as connected with the 
busy haunts of man ; and I am told that the wild bee 
is seldom to be met with at any great distance from 
the frontier." * In the observations respecting the 
bee-hive we can all perfectly concur, although writ- 
ten in a country differing in so many particulars 
from our own, and where new forms of vegetation 
replace the heaths and roses, among which the bees 
of these kingdoms delight to revel. 

Though the flight of the bee is at all times pleas- 
ing, it is especially so when, at the close of a sum- 
mer day, she directs her course homeward to the 
hive or to the nest. At that hour, when the fresh- 
ness of evening is in the air, and the hues of sun- set 
in the sky, there are many who have, with the poet, 

" Welcomed the wild bee home on wearied wing. 
Laden with sweets, the choicest of the spring'." 

Rogers' Pleasures of Memory, Canto I. 

To all such the maiden's song, when " busy day is 
o'er," will be fraught with peculiar charms. 

" Hark ! along the humming air 
Home the laden bees repair." 

Milman's Martyr ofAntioch. 

I must not, however, conclude the subject of Bees, 
without mentioning a curious fact, communicated to 

* Miscellanies, by the Author of the Sketch-Book, p. 61. 



wasps. 133 

me by Mr. Jackson. He brought over three hives 
from Bristol to Waterford, in the summer of 1828. 
Next spring, a full month before any of the inhabi- 
tants of the Irish hives in the same garden were 
stirring, the English bees were busily at work, and 
by the time their neighbours had commenced, had 
formed a considerable quantity of comb. Next year, 
they were earlier than the Irish bees, but not so 
much so as the preceding season ; and they have 
now, like some other settlers, adopted the seasons 
and customs of those among whom they have taken 
up their abode. It would be interesting, in con- 
nexion with this fact, to ascertain the time at which 
certain flowers come into blossom at Bristol and at 
Waterford. 

Another insect, no less known than the bee, but 
regarded with very different feelings, is the Wasp. 
The two insects, besides a general resemblance in 
form, have a considerable similarity in some of their 
habits. Both live in numerous communities, — both 
construct hexagonal cells, in which their young are 
reared ; and both labour with untiring perseverance 
for their support. The wasps, however, do not store 
up food, nor do they collect honey. They are armed 
freebooters, and take by force what they will not 
stoop to acquire by toil : — 



134 WASPS PAPER-MAKERS. 

" the good old rule 

Suflficeth them ; the simple plan, 

That they should take who have the power, 

And they should keep who can."— Wordsworth. 

To such lengths do they carry their contempt of 
the law of the realm, that even the fear of incurring 
the pains and penalties of a violation of the Excise 
laws does not prevent them from practising openly 
as unlicensed paper-makers. Nay, my dear friend, 
look not incredulous ; 

" Remember, I have done thee worthy service ; 
Told thee no lies \ made no mistakings ;" 

{.Tempest, Act I. Sc. II.) 

and I repeat, that wasps are not only the most free,, 
but also the most ancient, workers of this commodity 
in her Majesty's dominions. In fact, their nest is 
composed of paper, and of paper most ingeniously 
fabricated for the express purpose. With their strong 
mandibles they tear small splinters of wood from 
posts, railings, &c, in this neighbourhood, and 
they may at times be heard busy among the tall 
reeds on the banks of the Lagan, cutting off por- 
tions of the stems. The ligneous fibre thus ob- 
tained, forms the raw material. It is reduced by 
them to a pulp, and spread out, not so expedi- 
tiously, but quite as effectually, as if our most im- 
proved machinery had been employed in the operation. 
The paper thus made is in this country of a greyish 



THEIR NESTS. 135 

colour, rough on the surface, and extremely thin, and 
retains those characteristics, whether it be under 
ground, or suspended to the branches of a tree. Our 
home manufacturer, if I may venture to use the ex- 
pression, is greatly surpassed by that of some more 
tropical countries. I have at present in my cabinet 
a wasp's nest, from Berbice, in South America. It 
is about six inches in height, bell- shaped in its 
general form, and seventeen inches in circumference 
at its lower margin. A twig, to which it has been 
attached, passed through two apertures at the top; 
and a somewhat larger opening at the lowest part, 
formed the entrance to the interior of the nest, pro- 
tected from rain by the manner in which it project- 
ed beyond the adjacent parts. In this specimen, 




Wasps' Nest. 

the rough surface and loose flakes of the tree-nests 
of this country have disappeared, and in their place 



136 IRASCIBILITY OF THE WASP. 

is a firm, compact, and perfectly white surface, as 
smooth and polished as the finest pasteboard. The 
accompanying figures represent a nest of a species of 
wasp, which was found in Oxfordshire, and forwarded 
to Mr. Westwood. 

But though an Entomologist may take pleasure in 
observing the labours of wasps, both in constructing 
their nests and in rearing their young, and look with 
satisfaction on the ceaseless exertions by which the 
food necessary for the support of the grubs is pro- 
cured, he will find few persons who entertain similar 
ideas ; on the contrary, he will observe, that they 
are universally regarded as bold, audacious, and dan- 
gerous intruders. They alight fearlessly on the 
viands in our parlours ; they rifle the choicest fruit 
in our gardens ; and are prompt to avenge with their 
sting the slightest molestation. 

There is, perhaps, scarcely any person who has not 
suffered from the wound which this formidable 
weapon inflicts, by inadvertently provoking the 
irritable insect by which it is borne. In fact, so 
easily is its wrathful temperament aroused, that 
extreme irritability or irascibility can scarcely be ex- 
pressed by a stronger term than " waspish." It is, 
accordingly, in this sense, that we find Shakspeare 
has applied the epithet, "her waspish-headed son," 
when we are told in the " Tempest," that Cupid is 



NOTICES OF IT BY SHAKSPEARE. 137 

resolved to " be a boy outright ;" and again, in " As 
You Like It," — 

" I know not the contents ; but, as I guess 
By the stern brow and ivaspish action 
Which she did use as she was writing- it, 
It bears an angry tenour." — Act IV. Sc. III. 

In the celebrated scene in which the reconciliation 
between Brutus and Cassius is effected, the word is 
used in a similar manner : — 

" I '11 use you for my mirth ; yea, for my laughter, 
When you are waspish."— Act IV. Sc. III. 

In the first interview between Catherine and Pe- 
truchio, the word has precisely a similar signification. 
In accordance with his resolution to "woo her with 
some spirit when she comes," Petruchio, ere long, 
addresses his intended spouse by an epithet not 
usually found in a lover's vocabulary — 

" Pet.— Come, come, you wasp, V faith— you are too angry. 
Kath.—li I be waspish, best beware my sting-. 
Pet.— My remedy is then to pluck it out. 
Kath.— Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies. 
Pet.— Who knows not where a wasp doth wear his sting- ? 
In his tail."— Taming of the Shrew, Act II. Sc. I. 

Its power of stinging, and its proneness to exert 
that power, are the reasons why the word " wasp" is 
applied to individuals who would be apt to avenge 
real or imaginary injuries. This may be exemplified 
by the line, 



138 WASPS NOT STORERS-TJP OF HONEY. 

" Let not this wasp outlive us both to sting-." 

Titus Andronicus, Act II. Sc. III. 

Those characteristics are again referred to, when 
Suffolk, in "Henry VIII." is replying to the question — 

" will the king 

Digest this letter of the Cardinal's ? 

Suffolk. — There be more wasps that buz about his nose, 
Will make this sting the sooner."— Act III. Sc. II. 

I have already mentioned, that the wasps do not, 
like the bees, collect and store up honey : there is 
nothing, however, of which they are more fond ; and 
they scruple not to arrest it by force from the in- 
dustrious inhabitants of the hive. In this attempt, 
they " let no compunctious visitings o' nature shake 
their fell purpose;" and not unfrequently put to 
death the victims of their rapacity. This fact has 
not escaped the eye of Shakspeare. His knowledge 
of it furnishes a metaphor employed, in the "Two 
Gentlemen of Verona," by Julia, to express her con- 
trition for having torn the letter of " the love- 
wounded Protheus : " — 

" Oh ! hateful hands, to tear such loving words ; 
Injurious wasps, to feed on such sweet honey, 
And kill the bees that yield it with your stings ! " 

Act I. Sc. II. 

An allusion to the fondness of the wasps for honey 
is, in the " Winter's Tale," put with ludicrous effect 
into the mouth of Autolycus. The " rogue," so let 



ATJTOLYCUS. 139 

me call him, though he says he is "proof against 
that title," has terrified the old shepherd by a de- 
scription of the tortures he shall feel, summed up by 
the words, "All deaths are too few; the sharpest, 
too easy." The younger rustic, alarmed on his own 
account, by the apprehension of similar sufferings, 
timidly inquires, — " Has the old man e'er a son, sir ; 
do you hear, an't like you, sir ?" and is utterly hor- 
rified by the reply : — " He has a son, who shall be 
flayed alive, then 'nointed over with honey, set on 
the head of a wasps' nest, then stand till he be 
three-quarters and a dram dead : then recovered again 
with aquavits, or some other hot infusion : then, 
raw as he is, and in the hottest day, prognostication 
proclaims shall he be set against a brick- wall, the 
sun looking with a southward eye upon him ; where 
he is to behold him with flies blown to death." 
" But what talk we of those traitorly rascals," 
adds Autolycus ; then, changing the subject, inquires 
their business with the King, and proposes, on being 
" gently considered," to " whisper him on their be- 
halfs." The clown, delighted at the intercession of one 
who " seems to be of great authority," bids his son 
" close with him ; give him gold." The whole scene 
is replete with comic humour ; and if the stinging 
of the wasps has been too long dwelt on — if my pro- 
lixity has tempted you to exclaim, — " Friend, you 



140 ANTS. 

are tedious," let the mode in which the. fact is intro- 
duced by Autolycus make you amends. 

Shakspeare has noticed another insect, which, 
although very different from those we have now 
been considering, belongs, like them, to the order 
Hymenoptera. Perhaps this may seem to you a 
strange arrangement, and you may wonder that the 
busy little wingless creatures, whose habitations you 
have now and then inadvertently disturbed or wilfully 
invaded, should be classed with those insects which 
are furnished with four conspicuous wings. But if 
you have ever examined the interior of an ant's nest 
in the month of August, you may perhaps have 
noticed that some of the inmates appear of larger 
dimensions than usual, and that they are adorned 
with four wings, similar to those of a wasp, or bee. 
These are the female ants, just after their liberation 
from the cocoon. They soon desert the place of 
their nativity ; and, borne on their extended wings, 
seek for new localities in which to establish their in- 
dustrious colonies. As soon as their new abode has 
been selected, the object for which the wings were 
given is accomplished. These now useless append- 
ages are laid aside, not metaphorically, but literally. 
They are actually thrown off by the exertions of the 
insect herself, who now sedulously commences to 
lay the foundations of her populous kingdom.* 
* See Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 370. 



THEIR SUPPOSED FORESIGHT. 141 

Few insects are more widely diffused than the ant. 
Its habits have attracted universal notice ; and it has 
been celebrated, both by sacred and profane writers, 
as a model of prudence, foresight, wisdom, and dili- 
gence. In Proverbs we are told (chap. xxx. ver. 24), 
" There be four things which are little upon the 
earth ; but they are exceeding wise ; " and in the 
enumeration which follows, the ants are placed first, 
and are described as " a people not strong, yet they 
prepare their meat in the summer." In another part, 
(chap. vi. ver. 6), Solomon desires the sluggard to 
"go to the ant, consider her ways, and be wise ; which 
having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her 
meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the 
harvest." Many of our British poets have applauded 
the foresight of the ant ; and have either described 
her as storing up grain for winter use, or have 
alluded to such a circumstance. She is thus charac- 
terized by Milton :- — 

" First crept 

The parsimonious emmet, provident 

Of future, in small room large heart enclosed." 

Parnell depicts her as 

"Pressed by the cumbrous weight of single grains ;" 

these grains being " the burdens of a wintry store." 

A similar idea was probably entertained by Rogers, 

when he penned the harmonious couplet, — 

" How oft, when purple evening tinged the west, 
W T e watch'd the emmet to her grainy nest." 



142 THE POPULAR NOTION ERRONEOUS. 

But it is unnecessary to multiply quotations to 
show, that among all our popular writers, as well as 
among our agricultural population, who might be 
supposed to have the best means of observing the 
habits of the ant, she is universally represented as 
storing up food, and providing for the wants of 
winter. Yet, universally as this opinion has pre- 
vailed, it is not the less erroneous, and no species of 
ant has yet been discovered, which thus hoards up 
grain. The mistake seems to have had its origin in 
observing the ants carrying their young in the state 
of pupae, which in size and shape somewhat resemble 
a grain of corn ; and this opinion would be strength- 
ened by seeing the ant occasionally gnawing the end 
of one of these little oblong bodies, as if to extract 
the substance of the grain, but, in reality, to liberate 
the enclosed insect from its confinement. Shakspeare, 
in his notice of this insect, has shown his usual ac- 
curacy of observation, when he says, — " We '11 set 
thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there is no 
labouring in the winter ;" for the ants in these 
countries lie dormant during that season, and con- 
sequently do not require food for their support. It is 
possible that in warmer climates we may yet discover 
some species which do not pass the winter in a dor- 
mant state, and which, of course, would require a 
supply of food. But, so far as our acquaintance with 



ONLY ONCE MENTIONED BY SHAKSPEARE. 143 

their modes of life at present extends, no species of 
ant whatever hoards up grain. When Solomon, 
therefore, describes the ant " as providing her meat 
in the summer," he intimates, that she employs in- 
dustry in taking advantage of the season proper to 
accomplish a specific purpose ; and in this respect, 
we may all " consider her ways and be wise." 

The appearance of a plain, on which numerous 
colonies of ants have reared their mansions, has been 
beautifully described by Wordsworth : — 



; The intelligence that makes 



The tiny creatures strong by social league 
Supports the generations, multiplies 
Their tribes, till we behold a spacious plain 
Or grassy bottom, all with little hills, 
Their labour, cover'd as a lake with waves ; 
Thousands of cities in the desert place, 
Built up of life, and food, and means of life ! " 

The Excursion. 

It is somewhat remarkable, that an insect so well 
known, should, throughout all the dramatic works of 
Shakspeare, be but once mentioned; when others, 
not more attractive, are so frequently introduced. 
Perhaps, as the industry of the ant is the quality for 
which it is conspicuous, it did not admit of the 
variety of simile, or of the light and fanciful analogies 
essential for the purposes of the poet. Instead, how- 
ever, of indulging in what can only be regarded as 
conjectural, I shall for a moment forsake the writings 



144 HONEY-DEW. 

of <f my very noble and approved good master," to 
mention a circumstance which can easily be verified 
by your own observation. 

The first time it attracted my attention, was on a 
fine day in the month of September, 1829. I was 
then visiting the beautiful demesne of Lord Annesley, 
at Castle- wellan, and noticed a holly tree, on which 
a number of wasps were continually alighting, run- 
ning rapidly over its leaves, and flitting from branch 
to branch. A number of holly trees were scattered 
over the lawn ; but not one exhibited the same exhi- 
larating bustle. I sat down beside it, to endeavour 
to ascertain what peculiar attraction this tree pos- 
sessed, and soon found that the wasps were not its 
only visitors. A number of ants were plodding 
quietly along the twigs and leaves, exhibiting, by 
their staid and regular deportment, a singular con- 
trast to the rapid and vacillating movements of the 
wasps. I now discovered, that both ants and wasps 
were attracted by a substance which was plentifully 
sprinkled over all the leaves,- — the celebrated honey- 
dew of the poets. This substance has furnished 
Shakspeare with a touching and pathetic simile, 
which he has put into the mouth of Titus Andronicus — 

"When I did name her brother, then fresh tears 
Stood on her cheeks ; as doth the honey-dew 
Upon a gather'd lily almost wither'd."— Act III. Sc. I. 



ECONOMY OF ANTS. 145 

Honey- dew, instead of being, as Pliny conjectures, 
the saliva of the stars, or a liquid produced by the 
purgation of the air, is a secretion deposited by 
a small insect, which is green upon the rose-tree 
and black upon the wood-bine, and which Entomolo- 
gists distinguish by the generic name of Aphis. The 
liquid they deposit is perfectly pure, and rivals either 
sugar or honey in its sweetness The ants not 
only suck it up with eagerness, whenever it can be 
found, but they possess the art of making the aphides 
yield it, by patting them gently with their antennae ; 
and one particular species of ant is said to confine the 
aphides in apartments constructed solely for that pur- 
pose, to supply them with food, to protect them from 
danger, and to take, in every respect, as much care 
of them as we should do of our milch cattle. 

This may seem wonderful, nay, perhaps incredible. 
But, for a full confirmation of its accuracy, and for a 
delightful exposition of other facts not less surprising, 
I refer you to M. P. Huber's work on Ants, and con- 
clude my present lengthened epistle in the words of 
that accurate observer : — " The more the wonders of 
nature have attractions for me, the less do I feel in- 
clined to alter them by a mixture of the reveries of 
imagination." 

It is probable this letter will scarcely have been 
closed, until I shall remember some circumstance 

L 



146 shakspeare's cliff. 

which I would not willingly have omitted. Such, 
at least, has been the case in my former letters, 
even with respect to passages penned by Shakspeare 
himself. Thus, in speaking of beetles, a line was 
overlooked, with which I have been familiar, " even 
from my boyish days," and which gives a most forci- 
ble idea of the dizzy altitude of Dover cliff : — 

"The crows and choughs that wing the midway air, 
Show scarce so gross as beetles."— Lear, Act IV. Sc. VI. 

Should you take the trouble of directing my notice 
to similar omissions, I shall heartily rejoice, as it will 
afford the best proof of your interest being now 
awakened. 





'• O' my word, the father's son ; 111 swear 'tis a very pretty boy. O' my troth, 
'. looked upon him o' Wednesday half an hour together." — " I saw him run after 
L gilded butterfly." 



The individuals I have now to bring before you, 
are the most admired of all the insect tribes. In 
expanse of wing, and beauty of colouring, they stand 
unrivalled. Some are scarcely distinguishable from 
the leaves of plants or the trunks of trees on which 
they repose ; others are of the most unsullied white, 

" Pure as the snow-flake ere it falls to earth." 

Some exhibit gorgeous metallic hues ; and others 
display an azure equal in its intensity to that of the 

l 2 



148 BUTTERFLIES. 

summer sky at noon. Nor are the markings of their 
wings and bodies less varied, or less attractive. 
Lines, dots, circles, triangles, parallelograms, may- 
there be noticed, mingled in endless variety, and 
showing, that even in her most playful freaks, the 
colouring of nature is at all times beautiful. But 
the butterfly has to us a charm superior to all its 
external claims to admiration. It is among insects, 
what the primrose is among flowers — the prize of 
our childhood, and the object of our boyish exertion. 
What " young hunter of the butterfly and bee" 
does not recollect how eagerly it was pursued, 
the fear of wet feet or of soiled clothes, and all the 
cautions of mamma, totally forgotten ? A tumble over 
some concealed drain is disregarded ; the object of 
pursuit is neared, — it is struck down on the grass, — 
the rim of the hat is slowly raised, — and oh ! how 
proud is the little urchin to find his captive safe and 
unharmed within ! But alas ! such delights are 
transitory. The prisoner, by one vigorous dart, may 
regain his freedom ; or, if retained in durance, soon 
loses a portion of his beauty. The wings, touched 
by the fingers, part with some of their colouring, 
and justify the propriety of Shakspeare's epithet of 
"mealy." If, however, this "mealy" substance be 
examined under a lens, it will be found not to consist 
of fine dust, but of minute scales, preserving a regular 



UNIVERSALLY DIFFUSED. 149 

and peculiar form, and differing in the different 
families. It is from the circumstance of the wings 
being thus covered with scales, that the term Lepido- 
ptera has been employed, to express the distinguishing 
characteristic of the order to which the different kinds 
of butterflies, sphinxes, and moths belong. 

Such are the insects which are to "furnish forth," 
I hope not "coldly," the materials for the present 
"banquet:" and, as among these the butterflies are 
generally viewed as the most important, I shall com- 
mence with them; adding occasionally, to use the 
language of Justice Shallow, "any pretty little tiny 
kickshaws." 

I may first, however, remark that the lepidopterous 
insects are universally diffused. In the flower-garden, 
they flit from blossom to blossom ; in the pastures, they 
rise almost from under your feet ; on the mountain, 
they dart forth as you rustle through the heather ; in 
the forest, they attract your notice, glancing through 
its bright and sunny glades, or motionless as the lichens 
which variegate the trunks of its leafy monarchs. 
Not content with the possession of ubiquity out of 
doors, they enter into our dwellings, and are found 
even in the recesses of our chambers. They are 
fitted, not only for every place, but for every season. 
Some appear with the violets of spring, some with the 
roses of summer, some with the dahlias of autumn, and 



150 THE DECEMBER MOTH. 

one, at least, with the chrysanthemums of winter. It 
is strange, that beings so fragile should be found at a 
season so inclement; but He who has constructed the 
snowdrop, so as to bear, uninjured, tbe drifting 
storms of February, has enabled a small, darkish- 
coloured moth to endure the rigour of December, 

" When milk comes frozen home in pail." 

Love's Labour Lost, Act V. Sc. II. 

This little visitant is not difficult to find. In suc- 
cessive years, I have observed it in the sheltered 




Larva, Pupa, and Imago of Hipparchia pamphilus. 

walks of our botanic garden ; and the name by which 
it is distinguished, the December moth (Eriogaster 
populi), marks well the season of its appearance. 

As all butterflies appear by day, and 'as they are 
objects equally beautiful and conspicuous, it may be 
expected that they are not unfrequently introduced 



BUTTERFLY A SYMBOL OF THE SOUL. 151 

into poetic compositions. Long ere the Italian poet 
had dared to designate the insect as "1' angelica 
farfalla," the ancients had found in its transform- 
ations a symbol of the vague and shadowy ideas they 
entertained of the life of man here, of his repose in 
the tomb, and of the probability of a more glorious 
state of being hereafter. The Egyptian fable, as it is 
supposed to be, of " Cupid and Psyche," seems built 
upon this foundation. "Psyche," says an ingenious 
and learned writer, " means in Greek, the human 
soul ; and it means also, a butterfly ; of which ap- 
parently strange double sense, the undoubted reason 
is, that a butterfly was a very ancient symbol of the 
soul. From the prevalence of this symbol, and the 
consequent coincidence of the names, it happened 
that the Greek sculptors frequently represented 
Psyche as subject to Cupid, in the shape of a butter- 
fly ; and that even when she appears in their works 
under the human form, we find her decorated with 
the light and filmy wiugs of that gay insect."* 

The existence of the butterfly is so associated with 
pleasing ideas, and apparently so removed from 
aught that is irksome, that in Thomson's "Castle 
of Indolence," we find the Wizard, in the very first 
verse of his "syren melody," brings forward the con- 
dition of this insect, as contrasted with that of man: — 
* Nare's Essays, i. 101, quoted by Kirby and Spence, iv. 74. 



152 NOTICES OF IT BY THE POETS. 

"Behold! ye pilgrims of this earth, behold! 
See all, but man, with unearn'd pleasure gay : 
See her bright robes the butterfly unfold, 
Broke from her wintry tomb in prime of May ! 
What youthful bride can equal her array ? 
Who can, with her, for easy pleasure vie ? 
From mead to mead with gentle wing to stray, 
From flower to flower on balmy gales to fly, 

Is all she hath to do beneath the radiant sky." 

Stanza IX. 

Wordsworth hath noticed the butterfly in a manner 
to which the feelings of every naturalist will respond : 

— *— " The mute insect, fix'd upon the plant 
On whose soft leaves it hangs, and from whose cup 
Drains imperceptibly its nourishment, 
Endear'd my wanderings." The Excursion. 

He has again depicted the same insect when she 
springs from her place of momentary rest, and wings 
her wandering and changeful flight high in the sum- 
mer air : — 

" Before your sight, 

Mounts on the breeze the butterfly, and soars, 
Small creature as she is, from earth's bright flowers 
Into the dewy clouds." Idem. 

The flight is so variable, so inconstant, so far 
beyond any laws which we can lay down for its 
guidance or its object, that Mrs. Hemans has likened 
the butterfly to 

"an embodied breeze at play." 

In Lord Byron's "Giaour," a highly popular passage 
on this subject is to be found ; one where, however, 



ITS INCONSTANT FLIGHT. 153 

we dissent from the conclusion, as forcibly as we 
admire the description. The beginning is the only 
part I have occasion to quote : — 

" As, rising on its purple wing, 
The insect-queen of Eastern spring, 
O'er emerald meadows of Kashmeer 
Invites the young pursuer near, 
And leads him on, from flower to flower, 
A weary chase, and wasted hour." 

Moore has introduced these insects amid the splen- 
dour of " The Light of the Haram :" — 

" And they, before whose sleepy eyes, 

In their own bright Kathain bowers, 
Sparkle such rainbow butterflies ; 

That they might fancy the rich flowers 
That round them in the sun lay sighing, 
Had been by magic all set flying ! " 

The flight of the butterfly, thus beautifully described 
by the two most distinguished poets of the present 
day, has not been passed by Shakspeare unnoticed 
or unrecorded. When Valeria visits Virgilia during 
the absence of Coriolanus, she asks — " How does 
your little son?" and her question having been 
answered, she proceeds in the strain most likely to 
gratify his mother : — "O' my word, the father's son ; 
I'll swear 'tis a very pretty boy. O' my troth, I looked 
upon him o' Wednesday half an hour together." — 
" I saw him ran after a gilded butterfly ; and when he 
caught it, he let it go again ; and after it again, and 



154 YELLOW BRIMSTONE BUTTERFLY. 

over and over he comes, and up again ; catch'd it 
again : or whether his fall enraged him, or how 'twas, 
he did so set his teeth, and tear it. O ! I warrant how 
he mammock'd it." — (Act I. Sc.III.) 

The determination and absence of all fear which 
boys evince in the pursuit, has supplied a forcible 
simile at the time when Marcius, joined with the 
Volscians, is approaching Rome with the irresistible 
fury of a conqueror : — 

" He is their God : he leads them like a thing 
Made by some other deity than Nature, 
That shapes man better ; and they follow him 
Against us brats, with no less confidence 
Than boys pursuing summer butterflies, 
Or butchers killing flies."— Act IV. Sc. VI. 

The same species of butterfly may be more easily 
taken at one season of the year than at another. 
Thus, the yellow brimstone butterfly (Gonepterix 
Rhamni), I have been told, is in spring vigorous in 
all its movements, and requires active exertion before 
it can be secured. In the autumn, it is so sluggish, 
that I have, on more than one occasion, lifted it 
between my finger and thumb. This insect has 
never been taken in the neighbourhood of Belfast. 
The late J. Templeton, Esq., was of opinion, that on 
one occasion he had seen it, but at such a distance, 
as to render him uncertain of the fact. On the 4th 
of July, 1829, I watched one for some time on 



VISUAL POWERS OF THE BUTTERFLY. 155 

the quay of Belfast ; but as a crowded wharf is a 
place but ill adapted for racing after butterflies, I 
had to allow the unusual visitant to escape, but not 
until I had been several times so near, as to preclude 
the possibility of any mistake as to the insect. I 
have taken it in the neighbourhood of Portarlington, 
in the Queen's County, where it is always considered 
extremely rare. In the Spirehill wood, near to the 
same town, I have met in great abundance one of 
the most beautiful native butterflies, the silver-streak 
(Argynnis P aphid). It appeared, in quantity, to be 
almost equal to the pretty little brimstone moth 
(Rumia cratcegatd), which flies in the dusk of 
evening under the hawthorn hedges. I have never 
seen any species of butterfly in the same profusion, 
not even the common white. Yet, in the immediate 
vicinity of Belfast, this insect is never seen. The 
only parts of the north of Ireland in which I am 
aware of its existence, are Tullamore Park, county 
Down, and Shane's Castle Park, county Antrim. 
An instance of the visual powers of this insect fell 
under my observation. Being in the Spirehill wood 
with two young friends, each armed with a butterfly 
net, the boys were enjoying, with great glee, the 
sport which the place afforded. One of them, in 
the excitement of the moment, made "one fell 
swoop" with the net at one of the Paphian butter- 



156 SILVER-SPOT BUTTERFLY. 

flies. The steel rim of the net unfortunately struck 
the insect so forcibly as nearly to cut it in two, and 
render it useless as a specimen for the cabinet. The 
mutilated body was lying on the grass, and we were 
awaiting the further appearance of this " untaxed 
and unforbidden game," when an individual came in 
sight, flitted to the branch of a tree, and then darted 
in a straight line on the body of his deceased com- 
panion. He rested there but a moment, and then 
flew boldly away. The branch of the tree could not 
have been less than twelve or fourteen feet from the 
place where the dead butterfly lay. The other, to 
have acted as he did, must have had distinct vision at 
that distance. May I, my dear Arnold, while I com- 
municate the circumstance, beg you will follow it up 
by further observation, and ascertain, if possible, at 
what distance insects of the different kinds seem 
capable of distinguishing objects. 

There is a butterfly very similar to the one last 
mentioned, but the silver tints on the lower sides of 
its wings are arranged in spots, and not in streaks. 
It is called, therefore, the silver-spot butterfly 
{Argynnis Aglaki). This insect is not found at 
Portarlington, but has been observed by Mr. Hynd- 
man at Briansford, with the preceding species. Two 
butterflies, which I have never seen on the wing, have 
been taken by the same gentleman : one the grayling 



LOCALITIES OF INSECTS. 157 

(Hipparchia Semele), on the Knockagh, near Carrick- 
fergus, and on the strand at Portstewart ; the other, 
the painted lady {Cynthia Cardni), near the town of 
Antrim, on one occasion only. 

In speaking of the latter, Mr. Knapp remarks,— 
" This is a creature that visits us at very uncertain 
periods, and is vivified by causes infinitely beyond the 
comprehension of the Entomologist, seeming to re- 
quire a succession and variety of seasons and their 
changes, and then springing into life we know not 
how." * 

From what has been stated, it is obvious that the 
butterflies of different districts differ much from each 
other. The same holds good with respect to all the 
other insect tribes, and gives an additional stimulus 
to the exertions of the collector and the entomologist. 
It is, however, a very curious subject for observation 
and inquiry. The question continually recurs, — 
Why are they so local ? Why, when we can detect 
no difference in the temperature or in the produc- 
tions of two adjoining districts, are insects to be 
found in the one, which are never met with in the 
other ? To this we can give no satisfactory reply. 
It is one of those things to which human knowledge 
has not yet attained. It is, perhaps, a mystery 
which we shall never be able to unfold. Who could 
* Journal of a Naturalist, p. 290. 



158 SPECIES FOUND NEAR BELFAST. 

declare that the senses of insects are like to our 
senses, or their perceptions similar to those of man. 
May they not observe differences, nay, contrasts, 
where, to our eye, all seems uniformity ? May 
they not, 

" Where full instinct is the unerring guide," 

(Essay on Man, Epistle III.) 

possess means of discrimination of which we can 
form no idea ? 

This part of the country cannot be considered rich 
in the variety of its PapilionidBe. Besides the white 
butterflies, which are common everywhere, we have 
several of different shades of brown (Hipparchia 
Mgeria, Megcera, Janira, Hyperanthus, and Pamphi- 
lus); nor do we want the beautiful little copper 
butterfly {Lyccena Phlceas). Of the blue, of which 
there are fifteen species in England, we have only 
one {Polyommatus Dorylas). Early in spring, the 
bright wings of the orange-tip butterflies (Mancipium 
cardamines) are to be seen flitting over the meadows, 
fresh and bright as the young flowers which bloom 
on every sunny bank, or the feathery catkins which 
the willow waves above the stream. Their appear- 
ance inspires " vernal delight and joy," and betokens 
the near approach of that warmer season, when 

" Ten thousand forms, ten thousand different tribes, 
People the blaze." 

Thomson's Summer. 



X0T VERY NUMEROUS. 159 

During the summer, we have the tortoise-shell 
butterfly (Vanessa urticce) unfolding his variegated 




Tortoise-sliell Butterfly, just emerged from the Chrysalis. 

wings on every sunny ditch along the road- side. 
With the fruits of autumn, we have the admiral 
butterfly (Vanessa Atalanta), occasionally plentiful in 
September, and even enjoying the gleams of sun- 
shine which give a waning lustre to October. But 
all these added together would scarcely amount to 
twenty different species — a number small indeed, 
compared with what some other parts of Britain 
afford. 

One which is extremely common in England, is 
here totally wanting. I allude to that which exhibits 
in its decorations the splendid eyes which adorn the 
tail of the peacock, and whose velvet colouring is so 



160 OTHER IRISH SPECIES. 

soft, so rich, and so resplendent, that the attendants 
of Titania, when ordered by their mistress, in her 
passion for "Bottom the weaver," to 

" pluck the wings from painted butterflies, 

To fan the moon-beams from his sleeping eyes," — 

(Midsummer Nig/it's Bream, Act III. Sc. I.) 

could select none more gorgeous or more beautiful. 
The peacock butterfly {Vanessa Io), for so it is 
named, is found, though very rarely, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Portarlington ; in the south of Ireland 
it is comparatively abundant, if I may judge from the 
numerous specimens which I have received from 
Cork. 

Some of the species now mentioned are found in 
countries very remote from each other. Among a 
very small number of Papilionidse, brought to me 
from Port Hope, in Upper Canada, Phleas Acjlaia and 
Atalanta are found, and one almost, but not perfectly, 
identical with Cardui. And in a collection from 
" the frosty Caucasus," and now in the Museum 
of the Royal Institution of London, may be observed, 
I am told, Io, Paphia, Cardui, Dorylas, and Atalanta. 

I shall not, at present, dwell longer on this attrac- 
tive family, than merely to direct your attention to 
the manner in which the term " gilded butterflies" is 
applied by Shakspeare to gay, trifling, insignificant 
persons. The phrase occurs when Lear is about 



THE SPHINXES. 161 

being committed to confinement with Cordelia, 
towards whom he had previously confessed the in- 
justice of his conduct. The old monarch, " four- 
score and upwards," addresses his daughter in a man- 
ner at once so natural and so pathetic, that the pas- 
sage can scarcely be read without emotion : — 

' "Come, let 's away to prison. 

We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage : 
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down 
And ask of thee forgiveness : So we'll live, 
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh 
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues 
Talk of court news ; and we'll talk with them too, 
Who loses, and who wins ; who 's in, who 's out ; 
And take upon us the mystery of things, 
As if we were God's spies." 

Lear, Act V. Sc. III. 

The second great division of Lepidopterous insects 
is that comprising the Sphinxes. This name is applied 
in consequence of the attitude assumed by the cater- 
pillar, the head being held erect, so as to give the 
figure, at a little distance, a resemblance to that 
of the Egyptian sphinx. Of course you will not 
find the term in Shakspeare, as it is one used only by 
Entomologists, as a convenient designation to denote 
a particular division of the objects of their research. 
Unlike the butterflies, the sphinxes do not in general 
delight in the bright and warm sunshine of noon ; 
they prefer the cooler hours of the morning and 
evening. At such times, some species may be seen 



162 SPECIES TAKEN NEAR BELFAST. 

darting along with great power and rapidity, or 
hovering over the flowers, from which they draw their 
nutriment. The flexible tube which they insert 
among the blossoms for this purpose, is sometimes of 
considerable length. In a specimen of Sphinx con- 
volvuli taken at Londonderry, and brought to me 
alive by the guard of her Majesty's mail, it is nearly 
three inches long. "When not in use, this " tongue," 
to use the popular name, is curled up like the cor- 
responding organ in butterflies. The only sphinxes 
yet taken in this neighbourhood, are the following, 
and many of them are of rare occurrence -.—Anthro- 
cera Filipendulce, the six- spotted burnet ; Smerinthus 
ocellatus, the eyed hawk-moth ; Smerinthus populi, 
the poplar hawk-moth ; Sphinx convolvuli, the con- 
volvulus hawk-moth ; Deilephila Elpenor, the ele- 
phant hawk-moth; Macroglossa stellatarum, the 
humming-bird moth ; Sesia bomhyliformis, the 
narrow-bordered bee-moth ; Trochiliwm crabroni- 
formis, the lunar hornet. 

I may add to this list the most remarkable of 
them all — the death's-head sphinx (Acherontia Apro- 
pos) . It is also the largest, for its wings, when ex- 
panded, measure four inches and three-quarters 
across. The insect is named from the peculiar mark- 
ings on its thorax ; and as it possesses the power of 
uttering a shrill and plaintive cry, it has from these 



death's-head sphinx. 163 

two circumstances been regarded by the ignorant as 
an object of superstitious terror. By such, the " very 




Death's-head Moth. 

shining of its eyes is thought to represent the fiery 
element, whence it is supposed to have proceeded. 
Flying into their apartments in the evening, it at 
times extinguishes the light, foretelling war, pesti- 
lence, hunger, death, to man and beast." * 

The caterpillar is of considerable size, and remark- 
able both in its form and colouring ; yet I have never 
seen one alive, nor have I heard of its being ob- 
served in any of the potato fields in this vicinity. 
This may arise partly from their being few in 
number, and partly from their lying concealed in 
the day time, and feeding principally during the 
night. 

The remaining insects of the order Lepidoptera are 
comprised under the general name of " Moth." This 
* Journal of a Naturalist, p. 328. 

m 9 



164 THE WORD " MOTH" IN SHAKSPEAEE. 

term does not awaken many pleasing associations. 
In the minds of most people, it stands for an insect 
either contemptible from its size and inertness, or 
positively obnoxious from its attacks on many articles 
of clothing. The destructive power it exerts, is 
referred to by Pope, when contrasting the false with 
the true critics : — 

" Some on the leaves of ancient authors prey, 
Nor time, nor moths, e'er spoil'd so much as they." 

Essay on Criticism, Line 112. 

Shakspeare employs the word "moth," to denote 
something trifling or extremely minute ; and a doubt 
may be entertained, whether, in some passages, he 
intended any reference to the insect. Thus, in the 
touching appeal of Prince Arthur to Hubert, 

" Arthur. — Is there no remedy? 

Hubert. — None ; but to lose your eyes. 

Arthur. — Oh Heaven ! that there were but a moth in yours ; 
A grain, a dust, a gnat, a wandering 1 hair, 
Any annoyance in that precious sense ! 
Then, feeling what small things are boist'rous there, 
Your vile intent must needs seem horrible." 

King John, Act IV. Sc. I. 

In the same manner we have, 

"A moth will turn the balance." 

Midsummer Night's Dream, Act V. Sc. I. 

And in " King Henry the Fifth," — 

"Wash every moth out of his conscience."— Act I. Sc. IV. 
You may, perhaps, then, not be prepared to learn, 



VARIOUS SPECIES OF MOTHS. 165 

that there are many moths not inferior in size or 
beauty even to the butterflies, though they cannot, like 
their diurnal brethren, boast of " troops of friends." 
There is one in my cabinet at present, bred from a 
caterpillar found in the lawn of the Royal Academical 
Institution, which measures nearly three inches and 
a half across the expanded wings. It is of a deep 
fawn colour, and is known by the name of the oak- 
moth (Lasciocampa quercus). The emperor {Saturnia 
pavonia-minor) is of equal dimensions, and from the 
splendour of his decorations well deserves his impe- 
rial title. It is one of the largest and most conspi- 
cuous species, — taken, although rarely, in this neigh- 
bourhood. A few others may also be mentioned, as 
the buff- tip (Pygcera bucephala) , the ghost moth 
(Hepialus humuli), the great tiger moth (Arctia 
caja), the large sword-grass (Calocampa exoleta), and 
the great brown-bar moth (Mormo maura). The 
latter insect I have never seen alive ; but know that 
it has been observed here by others. It was also 
seen about the Weir, at Portarlington, this autumn, 
alighting on the under surface of any projecting 
ledge on the stepping stones, and turning over while 
on the wing in a singular manner, so as to effect this 
object. I may add to these the puss moth (Centra 
vinula), an insect, however, which is here of rare 
occurrence. Two chrysalids of an unusual appear- 



166 CLASSIC MOTHS. 

ance were found at Carnmoney some years ago, and 
being put under the charge of Mr. Hyndman, pro- 
duced in time a male and female of this species. 
An empty pupa case of the same insect was observed 
at Wolf-hill. These occurrences were sufficient to 
prove that the moth frequented this locality ; but I 
never knew of one being actually taken on the wing 
until this summer, when a single specimen was sent 
to me alive from Hollywood, county Down. In the 
south of Ireland, on the contrary, the puss-moth 
must at times be extremely abundant ; for in Septem- 
ber, 1831, I was shown, at the Cove of Cork, some 
young poplar trees which had been nearly destroyed 
the preceding summer by the caterpillars of this 
insect. I procured, at the same place, a wicker 
basket, in which some of the larvae had been confined, 
and where they had formed their cocoons by rasping 
off small portions of the woody fibre, and cementing 
it so strongly together, as not to be penetrated with- 
out difficulty, even by the blade of a pen-knife. 

Perhaps, however, the moths may prove more 
attractive to you, "learned Theban," when they 
assume the garb of learning. Know, then, that 
there are two species which adopt not the costume of 
our universities, but two different Greek letters, as 
the " badge of all their tribe," and wear them very 
conspicuously emblazoned on their wings : one of 



INGENIOUS DEVICE OF A BIRD. 167 

them is hence called Gamma, the other Iota. What 
other creatures could so appropriately claim such 
classic titles ? I do not propose giving you a list of 
our moths, as I did of our butterflies and sphinxes. 
Their number precludes such an attempt. I know 
fully two hundred species taken in the neighbour- 
hood of Belfast, and this is but a small portion of 
those which are probably to be found. Among them 
exists, as might be expected, considerable diversity 
with respect to their habitats : a very numerous tribe 
is found among our pasture fields, and its members 
are only driven from their lurking places by the pas- 
sage of some object through the grass. This year, 
I noticed a very common little bird, one of the wag- 
tails (Motacilla alba), adopt an ingenious plan for 
their capture. A cow was grazing, and of course 
passing slowly along, with her head close to the 
ground : the little bird placed itself so as to be almost 
in contact with her mouth, and hopped along as she 
advanced, seizing the moths which rose out of the 
grass at her approach. The cow paid no attention 
to the bird, and the bird seemed perfectly fearless 
with respect to the cow. Was there not reason as 
well as instinct in this procedure ? 

It is an unaccountable fact, that the night-flying 
insects, which shun the glare of the sunshine, and 
delight in darkness, should yet be so strongly 



168 LEAF-MINING CATERPILLARS. 

attracted by a light, as not only to hover around it, 
but even to fly into the flame. The practice is, 
however, so general, though so inexplicable, that 
when Portia says, 

" Thus hath the candle singed the moth, " 

(Merchant of Venice, Act II. Sc. IX.) 

she uses an illustration with which every one is 
familiar, and mentions an action which the spectator 
cannot behold without his sympathy being disagree- 
ably, if not painfully excited. 

While sauntering " under the greenwood tree," 
you can scarcely have failed to observe, that the 
foliage presents, occasionally, a perforated or torn 
appearance ; but, perhaps, you were not aware that the 
little beings by whom this was occasioned, were, in 
most instances, the caterpillars of moths. Their opera- 
tions are not always carried on in so open a manner : 
some species conceal themselves within the leaf, and 
there feed upon its pulp, without breaking through 
the membranous tissue of the surface. Nay, even 
the thickness of a leaf, trifling though it be, is more 
than they require ; the one-half of that extent giving 
scope enough for their operations. Of this, you can 
easily convince yourself, by examining the leaves of 
some of your rose trees, or of the common bramble of 
our hedges, or any of those indigenous plants of lowlier 
growth, which adorn the sloping bank, or perfume 



POETICAL DESCRIPTIONS OF THE CATERPILLAR. 169 

the margin of the rivulet. On many of them you 
will perceive, on the upper surface, curious, irregular, 
and generally tortuous lines, presenting, however, 
some diversity both in form and colour. These are 
the indications which tell that the little mining cater- 
pillars of some of our moths have been at work, and 
have been there enjoying their appointed food. There 
is truth, as well, as poetry, therefore, in the descrip- 
tion given by Thomson : — 

" The flowery leaf 

Wants not its soft inhabitants. Secure 

Within its winding citadel, the stone 

Holds multitudes. But chief the forest boughs, 

That dance, unnumber'd, to the playful breeze, 

The downward orchard, and the melting pulp 

Of mellow fruit, the nameless nations feed 

Of evanescent insects."— Summer, p. 50, ed. 1803. 

The skilful and delicate manner in which these 
little beings conduct their operations, is so truly won- 
derful, that Young, after the descriptive line, 

" Each flower, each leaf, with its small people swarm'd;" 
does not hesitate to term the little artisans 

"Those puny vouchers of Omnipotence." 

Night Thoughts, N. 9. 

It must have been the long-continued habit of ob- 
serving them in their different modes of life, — of 
watching some assuming the lifeless appearance of 
twigs of trees ; others, swinging on " their tree- 
rocked cradles," or excavating their fanciful dwell- 



170 REMARKS ON THE 

ings amid the foliage, that inspired Crabbe, when he 
penned the following passage : — 

"He knew the plants in mountain, wood, or mead ; 
He knew the worms that on the foliage feed ; 
Knew the small tribes that 'scape the careless eye, 
The plant's disease, that breeds the embryo fly ; 
And the small creatures, who, on bank or bough, 
Enjoy their changes, — changed we know not how. 
But now the imperfect being scarcely moves, 
And now takes wing, and seeks the sky it loves." 

Tales of the Hall, Vol. I. 

It is no mean recommendation of my favourite 
science, that she can thus discover, in the partial 
destruction of bark or foliage, a source of high in- 
tellectual gratification. When I consider, that every 
leaf may, in this manner, become a study, and one 
single tree supply a fund of pleasing thoughts, and 
grateful emotions, literally inexhaustible, I feel 

" I am as rich, in having such a jewel, 
As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl, 
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold." 

Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. Sc. IV. 

In a former letter, I noticed " the want of analogy 
between the sensations of insects and our own ;" on 
which interesting subject, a communication was 
made by the Rev. C. S. Bird, to the British Associa- 
tion for Science, 1832. In this paper, the arguments 
are in part founded on observations made on insects 
of the order now under consideration ; and I accord • 
ingly feel warranted in presenting you with the fol- 
lowing extracts on the subject. 



SENSATIONS OF INSECTS. 171 

" If in any case an insect feel pain, nothing, we 
should imagine, could call forth the feeling more than 
the act of passing a pin through its thorax, a part 
which we know to be peculiarly sensitive. It is, in 
fact, this very act of violence, equivalent to spearing 
a wild boar or a salmon, which is most revolting to 
observers ; and if their compassion can be shown to 
be misplaced in this case, they will hardly, I believe, 
appeal to any other." 

The reverend author, after mentioning the quies- 
cent state of a moth when pierced, thus continues : — 
" The fluttering is the symptom, the only symptom, 
by which people in general are convinced that an 
insect is suffering ; but here there was no fluttering. 
And then, to shew that even when it flutters, we are 
not hastily to infer pain, I have suddenly and ab- 
ruptly touched a leg, or some other part of its body, 
but not so as to wound it, and alarmed the moth, 
after which it has began to flutter, and finding the 
restraint of the pin, has never ceased to nutter more 
and more, until I destroyed it. I conclude, therefore, 
that the violent struggles which excite so much pity- 
in us before we know their cause, are merely the 
effect of alarm.' : * 

To the accuracy of the facts here recorded, I am 
enabled to bear testimony from my own personal 
observation. On one occasion, last summer, a pret- 
* Entomological Magazine, No. ii. 



172 EXPERIMENTS ON THE SUBJECT. 

tily mottled moth (Mamestra brassica) was pointed 
out to me, although scarcely distinguishable in 
colour from the lichen-coloured stone on which it 
slept. Stooping gently down, I passed a pin through 
the thorax of the insect, until the point came in con- 
tact with the stone underneath. No motion, not 
even the slightest tremour, evinced its consciousness 
of being thus transfixed ; although, in the higher 
animals, the most excruciating torture must have 
followed such a process. But when I attempted to 
move it, the case was altered. The feet were very 
firmly attached to the surface of the stone, and 
therefore, in lifting the moth from it, a slight degree 
of violence was used. This awoke the slumberer, 
and it instantly evinced by its motions the terror 
and desire to escape, so accurately described by 
Mr. Bird. Soon afterwards, I tried a similar experi- 
ment on a moth of a different species (Calyptra 
libatrix) . On this occasion, I carried the insect down 
four flights of stairs after its being transfixed with a 
pin, showed it in its quiescent or seemingly torpid 
state to some of my friends, and took it back to the 
apartment whence it had been removed, without its 
evincing the slightest indication of pain, or even 
attempting to flutter, until touched and purposely 
awakened. Without, therefore, arguing that insects 
are incapable of bodily suffering, we may, from these 
facts, safely infer that, contrasted with man, they are 



DEPOSITION 7 OF THE EGGS OF INSECTS. 173 

endowed with a comparative insensibility to pain. 
" The probation" of this point, bears, I hope, 

" no hinge nor loop 

To hang a doubt on."— Othello, Act III. Sc. III. 

When once the Lepidoptera have attained their 
perfect state, their lives are comparatively of short 
duration. To provide for the continuance of the 
species, seems, if not the sole, at least the principal 
object of their existence. The utmost care is 
evinced in selecting a proper place for depositing 
the eggs, and in attaching them to that place when 
chosen. Occasionally, however, some adverse cir- 
cumstance happens to the parent, and prevents her 
usual procedure. In such cases, her primary object 
seems to be to deposit the eggs, and she does so even 
when dying. Hence the Entomologist will frequently 
find in bis collecting-box, the eggs of the individuals 
he has taken during his excursion, and which had 
been transfixed and were apparently lifeless. On 
such occasions, the eggs are propelled almost in a 
continuous stream, and with astonishing rapidity. 
Their vast number is of itself a subject of surprise. 
On one occasion, a female of the ghost-moth (Hepia- 
lus humuli), had flown into my parlour and was 
secured. In less than half-an-hour afterwards, when 
the moth was quite dead, the number of eggs she 
had projected was such as to excite our wonder. We 



174 THEIR FECUNDITY. 

counted one hundred, and as we had no delicate 
scales at hand to determine the matter hy weight, 
we divided them into little parcels corresponding in 
bulk to that of the one hundred we had counted. 
There were seven similar parcels, making, as near as 
we could calculate by such means, eight hundred 
eggs deposited before death by the one insect. 
With such fecundity, we need not wonder, that after 
supplying food to thousands of " little trooping 
birds," each species is still preserved to fill its ap- 
pointed place in the great scale of creation, and bear 
emblazoned on its wings evidence of Creative power, 
equal, in the mind of the philosopher, to that afforded 
by " the great globe itself." 





" MARcrj3.— Alas ! my lord, I have but kill'd a fly. 

Tiros.— But how, if that fly had a father and mother, 
How would he hang his slender, gilded wings. 
And buz lamenting doings in the air ? 
Poor, harmless fly!" 

TITUS ANDBONICnS, ACT III. 



I have now, my dear Arnold, to call your atten- 
tion to the insects belonging to the order Diptera. 
They are all furnished with two wings, as their name 
imports, and also with two halteres or poisers, which 
you will observe behind, and generally underneath 
the wings. The dipterous insects are very dissimilar 



176 THE DIPTERA. 

in size and form, and, in fact, present so many marks 
of distinction, that the British species at present 
described amount to nearly two thousand, and there 
are no doubt many with which we are yet unac- 
quainted. I do not propose to bring before you the 
habits of the numerous families into which this vast 
assemblage of species is divided, but to confine my- 
self principally to those mentioned by Shakspeare. 

In a former letter I remarked, that the Poet seemed 
cognizant of at least three or four different kinds, 
each of which he distinguishes by some peculiarity 
in its habits. One of these was the flesh-flies, or 
those which prey on dead and decaying animal sub- 
stances. The larvae of some of these insects con- 
stituted the "convocation of politic worms," which 
Hamlet describes as busy on the dead body of 
Polonius. In a similar assemblage, one of the most 
admired writers of the present day has introduced 
the larva of the goat-moth, as the companion of the 
earth-worm : — 



" round him now the worms are met in council ; 

Cossus and Lumbricus are chosen presidents : 
The one, because he is a judge of learning, 
And t' other has taste in flesh." 

The Temptation.— B. Cornwall. 

Without pausing, at present, to inquire why these 
individuals should be thus associated, or thus cha- 



FLESH-FLIES NOTICED BY SHAKSPEARE. 177 

racterised, I return to Shakspeare. Now it is not a 
little remarkable, that while he seems to suppose that 
maggots were generated by the sun, or that " the 
sun breeds maggots in a dead dog," he was at the 
same time aware of the fact, that they are pro- 
duced by a fly, who deposits on the decaying 
matter her eggs, or her larvae. It is curious, 
that the two ideas could exist simultaneously — 
that the knowledge of the latter circumstance did 
not at once lead to the disbelief of the former. 
But in the history of human knowledge, we meet 
continually with such anomalies, and find the mind 
stopping short in the midst of error, just where 
one step farther would have placed it in the full 
effulgence of truth. The allusions to the flesh-flies, 
as the origin of the maggots, are numerous. When 
Trinculo has been taken out of " the filthy mantled 
pool," beyond the cell of Prospero, he replies to a 
question by Alonzo, — " I have been in such a pickle 
since I saw you last, that I fear me will never out of 
my bones ; I shall not fear fly-blowing." (Tempest, 
Act V. Sc. I.) When Imogen, in the assumed cha- 
racter of Fidele, agrees to follow Lucius, she states 
her determination, in the first instance, to bury the 
supposed dead body of Posthumus, not for the pur- 
pose of doing it honour, but of protecting it from 
those insects : — 

N 



178 UTILITY OF THESE FLIES. 

" I 'U follow, Sir. But first, an't please the Gods, 
I '11 hide my master from the flies, as deep 
As these poor pickaxes can dig." 

Cymbettne, Act IV. Sc. II. 

Ferdinand, when he avows his passion for Miranda, 
says, I 

" would no more endure 

This wooden slavery, than I would suffer 
The flesh-fly blow my mouth." 

Tempest, Act III. Sc. I. 

And, not to multiply quotations unnecessarily, 
Shakspeare points out still more distinctly and un- 
equivocally the connexion between the fly and the 
maggot, when he says — - 

" these summer flies 

Have blown me full of maggot ostentation." 

Love's Labour Lost, Act V. Sc. II. 

Although our larders now and then suffer a little 
from the attacks of these flesh-flies, the benefits they 
confer outweigh a thousand times the injuries they 
occasion. They are the great preservers of the 
purity and salubrity of the air, by their instrument- 
ality in consuming carrion, which, if left to decay by 
the decomposition of its particles, would taint the 
atmosphere around. To fit them the better for this im- 
portant duty, they are gifted with astonishing powers, 
both of growth and of production. The young of 
one species (Masca carnaria) attain their full size in 



THEIR FECUNDITY. 179 

five days, and the female will give birth to twenty 
thousand young. Hence the assertion of Linnaeus, 
with regard to M. vomit oria, that three of these flies 
would devour a dead horse as quickly as a lion would 
do, astonishing as it may appear, is, perhaps, not 
overstrained. 

Not only are those flies endowed with rapidity of 
growth, and extreme fecundity, but, to render those 
powers available for the purposes for which they are 
given, there is reason to believe that they possess an 
instinct which, instead of making them keep together 
for companionship, prompts them to scatter widely 
over the land in search of their fitting food, and con- 
gregate only at the very place where their services 
are required. Hence, they are constantly at hand 
when wanted, and without delay commence the ful- 
filment of their important task. I am the more 
tempted to make this remark, from a circumstance 
mentioned by my friend, Dr. J. L. Drummond. He 
had procured a number of the maggots of the com- 
mon blue-bottle fly, and had put them into a glass 
vessel with a quantity of little pellets of paper, 
among which they quickly buried themselves, mani- 
festing the utmost impatience to avoid the light. 
In about a month, they had undergone their 
change into pupas, and were bursting their cases 
and assuming the imago form, at the moment he 

x 2 



180 THEIR CHANGES OF COLOUR. 

chanced to direct his attention to them. For some 
time, he was delighted with observing the changes 
of colour, described by him in the following words, 
in his most deservedly popular work, " First Steps 
to Botany." " At first," the flies, after bursting 
from their chrysalid state, " are greyish white, 
with a waxy transparency ; in a few seconds they 
became bluish, in a few more like the mainspring 
of a watch, and after some minutes, great part 
of them is grown quite black." * He soon, how- 
ever, noticed, that after resting a little while on the 
walls of the apartment, they began to bestir them- 
selves, and gained in time an open window, from 
which the back-yard of the dwelling-house was seen, 
surrounded on every side by high walls and build- 
ings. The moment this position was attained, rest 
was at an end. They opened their wings and flew 
into the yard, not to rest upon its walls, but to hold 
their course right into the air, above the houses 
which hemmed them in, and thence scatter in every 
direction from the height they had attained. Of 
hundreds which were evolved from the pupa? cases, 
not one rested in the yard, but, from the window, 
darted right into the air, and held its unwavering 
flight upwards. Perhaps, under such circumstances, 
the wind might exercise a considerable influence on 
Second ed. p. 149. 



THE BLUE-BOTTLE FLT. 181 

their course, with respect either to its direction or 
extent. An idea that it has occasionally some such 
effect, pervades the words of Florizel, when he 
says — 

" So we profess 

Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies, 
Of every wind that blows." 

Winter's Tale, Act IV. Sc. III. 

The common blue-hottle fly (Musca vomitoria), on 
which those observations were made, is so well known, 
that it furnishes, in " King Henry the Fourth," an 
epithet applied by the abusive tongue of Doll Tear- 
sheet, to the beadle who had her in custody. She 
reviles him as a "blue-bottle rogue," a term evidently 
suggested by the similarity of the colour of his cos- 
tume to that of the insect now under consideration. 
The habits of the fly, so busy, noisy, and restless, 
have caused Washington Irving to introduce it as an 
object of comparison in his inimitable story of the 
" Spectre Bridegroom." Baron Von Landshort, " a 
fuming, bustling little man," is busied with pre- 
parations for the expected arrival of his son-in-law ; 
and we are told, " He worried from top to bot- 
tom of the castle, with an air of infinite anxiety ; 
he continually called the servants from their work to 
exhort them to be diligent ; and buzzed about every 
hall and chamber, as idly restless and as impor- 



182 CRUELTY TO INSECTS REPROVED. 

tunate, as a blue-bottle fly of a warm summer's 
day." * 

The wanton cruelty too often exercised towards 
flies, is unfortunately a circumstance of common oc- 
currence, and as such, must have fallen under the 
notice of Shakspeare. Accordingly, we find in 
" King Lear," that Gloster utters the reflection, 

" As flies to wanton boys, are we to the Gods ; 
They kill us for their sport."— Act IV. Sc. I. 

The ease with which this is effected, is implied in 
" As You Like It," by the phrase, " by this hand it 
will not kill a fly." (Act IV. Sc. I.) In " Titus 
Andronicus," we find that the killing of a fly is not 
merely mentioned, but is reprehended in very decided 
terms. "When Titus and Marcus are seated together 
at a banquet, the former inquires,— 

" Titus.— What dost thou strike at, Marcus, with thy knife ? 

Marcus.— At that that I have killed, my lord,— a fly. 

Titus.— Out on thee, murderer ! thou killest mine heart ; 
Mine eyes are cloy'd with view of tyranny. 
A deed of death done on the innocent, 
Becomes not Titus' brother. Get thee gone; 
I see thou art not for my company. 

Marcus.— Alas ! my lord, I have but killed a fly. 

Titus.— But how, if that fly had a father and mother. 
How would he hang his slender, gilded wings, 
And buz lamenting doings in the air ? 
Poor, harmless fly I— Act III. Sc. II. 

Although the fly having "a father and mother," 

* Sketch Book, vol. i. p. 319, third ed. 



DIMINUTIVE SIZE OF SOI>IE DIPTERA. 183 

would not, to the Entomologist, convey the inference 
which the Poet intended, the lesson of humanity will 
by no one be appreciated more highly than by him, 
because no one can estimate, as he does, the wonder- 
ful structure and functions of the insect ; and 
although, for scientific purposes, he occasionally puts 
onei;o death, none would applaud more warmly the 
conduct of Uncle Toby, when, after he had caught the 
fly which had " buzzed about his nose, and tormented 
him cruelly all dinner time," — " I'll not hurt thee, 
says my Uncle Toby, rising from his chair and going 
across the room with the fly in his hand, — I'll not 
hurt a hair of thy head. Go, says he, lifting up the 
sash, and opening his hand as he spoke, to let it 
escape, go, poor devil, get thee gone ; why should I 
hurt thee ? This world surely is wide enough to 
hold both thee and me." 

The diminutive size of many dipterous insects is 
more than once indicated. Thus, Lear mentions not 
the gilded fly, but " the small gilded fly." And we 
are told that the driver of Queen Mab's equipage was 
not merely a grey-coated gnat, but that her Majesty 
had for 

" Waggoner, & small grey-coated gnat." 
The latter insect is again introduced as expressive of 
the very minimum of physical dimensions. Imogen 
is speaking of the departure of her lord : — 



184 POETICAL NOTICES OF THEM. 

" I would have broke mine eye-strings ; crack'd them, but 
To look upon him, till the diminution 
Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle ; 
Nay, followed him, till he had melted from 
The smallness of a gnat, to air ; and then 
Have turn'd mine eye and wept." 

Cymbeline, Act I. Sc. IV. 

The manner in which these insects keep pace with 
the traveller, has been thus noticed by Wordsworth — 

"Across a bare, wide common I was toiling 
With languid feet, which by the slippery ground 
Were baffled ; nor could my weak arm disperse 
The hosts of insects gathering round my face, 
And ever with me as I paced along." 

The Excursion. 

The same poet has elsewhere admitted the cheerful 
influence of their humming : — 

" 'Tis now the hour of deepest noon. 

At this still season of repose and peace. 

This hour, when all things which are not at rest 

Are cheerful — while the multitude of flies 

Is filling all the air with melody, 

Why should a tear be in an old man's eye ? " 

The Excursion. 

The influence which the sun possesses in summoning 
those insects to their mazy dances in the air, or in 
sending them to their lurking places by withdrawing 
his beams, has not been passed by unheeded. Thus 
we read — 

" When the sun shines, let foolish gnats make sport ; 
But creep in crannies, when he hides his beams." 

Comedy of Errors, Act II. Sc. II. 



THEIR AERIAL DANCES. 185 

And we have a further reference to the effect of a 
change of weather on this or some other genus, in 
the words — 

"One cloud of winter showers, 

These flies have couched." 

Timon of Athens, Act II. Sc. II. 

Their assembling, as here described, is a fact with 
which even the most incurious observer is familiar, 
and on which the most refined may speculate. Why- 
do they thus associate together ? What principle 
impels them to join in the airy and ceaseless dance, 
that best evidence of their enjoyment ? Perhaps 
no solution of this question can be more true, and 
at the same time more philosophical, than that afforded 
by the poet : — 

" Nor wanting here, to entertain the thought, 
Creatures that in communities exist, 
Less, as might seem, for general guardianship, 
(> through dependence upon mutual aid, 
Than by participation of delight, 
And a strict fellowship of love combined : 
What other spirit can it be that prompts 
The gilded summer-flies to mix and weave 
Their sports together in the solar beam, 
Or in the gloom of twilight hum their joy? " 

Wordsworth. 

During the summer, many tribes of dipterous 
insects are seen in the joyous mazes here described. 
I have watched them over a small piece of water, 



186 THEIR NUMBERS. 

dancing a varied, yet not irregular figure, and per- 
forming, what a master of ceremonies would describe 
as like to that part of the Lancer quadrille, when the 
gentlemen turn off to the left, and the ladies to the 
right, meet at the lower end of the room, and advance 
again to their former stations. There was, however, 
this difference, that all the dancers on this occasion 
were what the master would call " les cavaliers," for 
" les dames," among the Diptera, are never known to 
partake of such amusements. 

Sometimes, those tiny beings appear like clouds 
rising and falling in the air, or presenting, above 
plantations of trees, the aspect of wreaths of smoke 
ascending from the chimney of a cottage. Such is 
the appearance presented in the evening by Culex 
detritus, a species which was undescribed, until 
noticed about four miles from this town, by A. H. 
Haliday, Esq., of Clifden, one of the members of 
our Natural History Society. During the day, it 
was observed in multitudes among the sedges on the 
sea coast.* Any one who, at particular times, has 
travelled from Crumlin to Antrim, must have observed 
a similar phenomenon, arising from the myriads of 
Culicidce, Tipulida, and Ephemerid<z, which exist in 
the vicinity of Lough Neagh. 

The occurrence of a similar phenomenon in a 

* List of Diptera, Entomological Magazine, No. ii. p. 151. 



UNIVERSALLY DIFFUSED. 187 

different part of this country, doubtless suggested to 
our Irish bard, the melodious author of the " Fairy 
Queen," the following beautiful simile : — 

" As when a swarm of gnats at eventide 
Out of the fens of Allan do arise, 
Their murmuring' small trumpets sounden wide ; 
Whiles in the air, their clustering armies fiyes, 
That as a cloud doth seem to dim the skyes ; 
Ne man nor beast may rest, or take repast, 
For their sharp wounds, and noyous injuries, 
'Till the fierce northern wind, with blust'ring blast, 

Doth blow them quite away, and in the ocean cast." 

Book II. Canto 16. 

In every country, however, the abundance of some 
species of Diptera is a matter of common observa- 
tion ; and it is this fact which gives such effect to 
the words of the Babylonian monarch : — 

" Everywhere, the countless multitudes, 

Like summer insects in the noontide sun, 
Come forth to bask in our irradiate presence." 

Milman'* Belshazzar. 

So universally are they diffused, that their absence, 
combined with that of other insects, denotes more 
forcibly than almost any thing else could do, the 
solitary altitude described by Byron : — 

"My joy was in the wilderness, to breathe 
The difficult air of the iced mountain's top, 
Where the birds dare not build, nor insect's wing 
Flit o'er the herbless granite." 

Manfred, Act II. Sc. II. 

While in summer we remark several kinds of 



188 SOME OBSERVED IN WINTER. 

insects enjoying these festive meetings, in winter we 
observe they are confined exclusively to the males of 
the Tipulidce. These insects differ exceedingly in 
size and colour. Some (like T. crocata, abundant 
about Shane's Castle) are splendidly adorned with 
bands of yellow. Others, of larger dimensions, and 
more homely attire (T. oleracea), will amuse you, if 
you watch them as I have done, holding the body 
erect, while piercing the ground and depositing an 
egg, then moving an inch or two, and repeating the 
operation with untiring perseverance. It is, how- 
ever, to the smaller kinds you are most likely to 
attend ; for in every winter walk they force them- 
selves on your notice, when the sun is at all 
warm, and your ramble not in an exposed locality. 
Even when the pond rings with the evolutions 
of the skaters, when Winter sits enthroned in all 
his regal splendour, apparelled in his " diadem of 
snows," — there they are, undeterred by cold, uncon- 
scious of the torpidity of the scene around, disport- 
ing in a manner as cheerful as incessant. Often, 
when the quick motion of a smart walk has given 
rise to pleasurable emotions, which Dr. Johnson, in 
his post-chaise, might regard with envy, have I 
looked with delight upon these happy insects, and 
felt that their existence gave a new charm to the 
prospect. 



CLOUDS OF THEM SEEN IN JANUARY, 1836. 189 

Even at the most inclement season of the year, 
they occasionally appear in very considerable num- 
bers. An instance of this recently occurred between 
Maghera and Dungiven, county Derry, and is thus 
mentioned in the Northern Whig of Thursday, the 
7th of January, 1836: — " On yesterday, while the 
Belfast and Londonderry day coach was passing over 
Glenshane mountain, on its way to this town, it came 
repeatedly in contact with extensive and dense 
clouds of small flies, or midges. This very singular 
occurrence continued for nearly a mile." I found, on 
inquiry, that no one had thought of taking any spe- 
cimens, so that I am unable to state what species of 
flies formed the vast assemblage thus noticed. 

The countless multitude of summer flies do not 
all select a station so elevated as that I have now 
mentioned. Mr. Haliday states, in speaking of Bibio 
lanigerus, — " The first time I met with this species 
was in the beginning of April some years back, walk- 
ing one sunny morning on a low, sandy spit, that 
runs into the bay at Hollywood, and is used for graz- 
ing cattle. I was struck by an appearance of innu- 
merable sparkles of light over the short herbage, as 
far as I could see, resembling the reflections of the 
sun on a gentle ripple. On looking for the cause, I 
found the sward covered with species, principally 
males, who were in busy movement, exploring and 



190 MULTITUDES ON GRASS. 

quartering their ground with the skill of a trained setter. 
The evident object of their search was the females, 
who, in the proportion ^of about one to fifty of their 
partners, were sitting sluggishly on the stems of the 
grass. I contined my walk for about three hundred 
yards, without perceiving any diminution of numbers. 
I then measured off a square foot, and counted with- 
in that space thirty- seven, and they did not appear 
thicker in that spot than in others. Though the 
species is still abundant in the season, I have never 
since witnessed an assemblage like this." * 

Supposing that Mr. Haliday could see the " innu- 
merable sparkles of light over the short herbage," for 
only twelve or thirteen yards on each side of him, 
the breadth of the space occupied by these insects 
would be twenty-five yards : as he walked " about 
three hundred yards without perceiving any diminu- 
tion of numbers," we may suppose that they extended 
to at least a hundred yards further. The length 
multiplied by the breadth, and reduced to square feet, 
would give 90,000, and as a square foot, when they did 
not appear more numerous in that spot than in others, 
contained thirty-seven, the total number of insects 
would be three millions three hundred and thirty 
thousand. Perhaps, however, from the limited space 

* Catalogue of Diptera occuring about Hollywood.— Entomological 
Magazine, No. ii. p. 179. 



THE FLY AX OBJECT OF COMPARISON. 191 

with respect to which the calculation is made, the 
multitude of insects might be double or treble this 
number, so that on a "low, sandy spit" of incon- 
siderable dimensions, and in view of the highway, we 
find animated millions enjoying life, revelling in all 
the bliss it affords, — endowed with wants, feelings, 
and instincts ; and, but for the eye of the Entomolo- 
gist, all these living creatures would have appeared 
and passed away without one human being having 
been aware of their existence. 

Examples such as this teach us, what pride so 
often forgets, — that the world is not made for man 
alone, but that living myriads people each lonely 
spot, and enjoy the degree and kind of happiness of 
w T hich they have been rendered capable by their 
Creator, 

To the poet and the moralist, the fly has not un- 
frequently furnished a subject for reflection, and an 
object for comparison. The gaiety which seems in- 
herent in the life of the insect, has been likened to 
that which marks the passage of the gay voluptuary, 
whose thoughts are absorbed by the present, and who 
heeds not the changes which time will inevitably 
bring. Impressed with this image, Lord Byron, who, 
like Shakspeare, has laid bare many of the secret 
workings of the heart, has thus written : — 

"Childe Harolde basked him in the noontide sun, 
Disporting there like any other fly ; 



192 NOTICED BY THE POETS. 

Nor deem'd before his little day was done, 
One blast might chill him into misery." 

Canto I. St. IV. 

In a similar spirit, Cowper, in his natural and reflect- 
ive poem of " The Garden," has remarked, — 

"The million flit as gay, 

As if created only like the fly, 

That spreads his motley wings in th' eye of noon, 

To sport their season, and be seen no more." 

The same idea appears still more amplified in Gray's 

delightful " Ode to Spring." After he has told us — 

"The insect youth are on the wing," 

mentioned the habitats of some, and the " gilded 
trim" of others 

" Quick glancing to the sun," 

he proceeds to develope the reflections awakened by 
their appearance : — 

"To Contemplation's sober eye, 
Such is the race of man ; 
And they that creep, and they that fly, 
Shall end where they began. 
Alike the busy and the gay, 
But flutter through life's little day, 
In Fortune's varying colours dress'd, 
Brush'd by the hand of rough Mischance, 
Or chill'd by Age, their airy dance 
They leave, in dust to rest." 

You will see, therefore, my dear friend, that in 
this, as in other departments of my favourite science, 
the objects are not only interesting themselves, but 



AND IN THE CLASSICS. 193 

the source of ideas, which many would deem even 
more interesting. 

You will readily call to mind passages from the 
classics, in which these diminutive beings are brought 
forward. Nay, occasionally, they are mentioned 
amid circumstances, which at first sight seem, by 
their importance, to forbid the introduction of " such 
small deer." Of this kind, is that passage in the 
" Agamemnon" of yEschylus, where Clytemnestra is 
reciting to her lord, who has returned triumphant 
from the siege of Troy, her " melancholy life" during 
his absence : — 

" At thy return, 

The gushing fountains of my tears are dried. 

Save that my eyes are weak with midnight watchings, 

Straining, thro' tears, if haply they might see 

Thy signal fires, that claim'd my fix'd attention. 

If they were closed in sleep, a silly fly 

Would, with its slightest murm'rings, make me start, 

And wake me to more fears." 

Potter's Translation, p. 189. 

On Virgil's instructions for generating swarms of 
bees from the 

"putrid gore of oxen slain,"— {Georgic. IV.) 
I have thought it unnecessary to make any comment, 
some species of flies busy about the fermenting car- 
case, having obviously been mistaken for bees. 

I must now call your attention to the annoyance 
which flies in warm climates occasionally become, 



194 ANNOYANCE OCCASIONED BY FLIES. 

and to a curious and unexplained mode of defence 
which has lately been made public. In the first 
scene in the tragedy of " Othello," we find Iago, in 
speaking of the Moor, use the remarkable words, — 

"And tho' lie in a fertile climate dwell, 
Plague him with flies," 

Othello had at that moment succeeded in carry- 
ing off the gentle Desdemona. The malice of Iago 
might annoy, but not injure him ; or, as he himself 
expresses it, in speaking of the Moor, — 



"Though that his joy be joy, 

Yet throw such changes of vexation on it, 
As it may lose some colour." 






Those words are supposed to be spoken at Venice, 
where, from the multitude of canals,* and the low 
situation of the city, flies of many kinds must be 
supposed to abound; especially those whose larvae 
are aquatic. In point of fact, flies constitute " the 
first of torments in Spain, Italy, and the olive district 
of France." " It is not," continues Arthur Young, 
" that they bite, sting, or hurt, but they buz, teaze, 
and worry. Your mouth, eyes, ears, and nose, are 
full of them ; they swarm on every eatable ; fruit, 
sugar, milk, — every thing is attacked by them in such 
myriads, that if they are not driven away incessantly 
* The canals of Venice give birth to myriads of gnats. 



MODE OF EXCLUDING THEM FROM HOUSES. 195 

by a person who has nothing else to do, to eat a 
meal is impossible." * 

The mode by which these intruders are excluded 
from dwelling-houses, is detailed by W. Spence, Esq., 
one of the authors of that " Introduction" which I 
have so frequently quoted. I shall use the words 
employed by him in his communication to the Ento- 
mological Society : — " If my curiosity was excited by 
this statement, my surprise was not lessened by 
being told, in explanation of the apparent impossi- 
bility of thus excluding flies from a room with un- 
closed windows, that in point of fact the openings of 
the windows were covered with a net, but with a net 
made of white, or light-coloured thread, and with 
meshes an inch or more in diameter ; so that there 
was actually no physical obstacle whatever to the 
entrance of the flies, every separate mesh being not 
merely large enough to admit one fly, but several, even 
with expanded wings, to pass through at the same 
moment, and that consequently, both as to the free 
admission of air, and of the flies if they had chosen, 
there was practically no greater impediment than if 
the windows were entirely open, the flies being ex- 
cluded simply from some inexplicable dread of ven- 
turing across the thread- work, "f The cause of their 

* Travels, vol. ii. p. 35. 
t Transactions of Entomological Society, vol. i. p. 3. 

o 2 



196 MOSdUITOES. 

seeming terror, Mr. Spence professes himself unable 
to explain ; but he marks out very judiciously several 
points of inquiry which are calculated to throw light 
on this anomalous subject. 

You, perhaps, are not aware, that the common 
gnat of Britain (Culex pipiens) is supposed to be 
identical with the dreaded mosquito of other Euro- 
pean countries, and of the northern parts of Asia 
and America. Although we suffer but comparatively 
little annoyance from the attacks of such insects, I 
should scarcely be warranted in omitting all reference 
to the torment they occasion in other climates, and 
the manner in which they modify, in some respects, 
the domestic economy of man. They seem to be able 

"The fierce extremes of heat and cold to brook ; " 

for they are found no less abundant among the "thick- 
ribbed ice" of Lapland, than in regions exposed to 
the full influence of a tropical sun. Of the annoy- 
ance they occasion in India, Captain Basil Hall gives 
so vivid a description, that, like the unfortunate wight, 
within the gauze curtains of whose bed a " villainous 
mosquito" has gained admission, we "can almost 
fancy there is scorn in the tone of his abominable 
hum."* Dr. Clarke states, in his Journey along the 
frontier of Circassia, that the Cossack soldiers "pass 
* Fragments of Voyages and Travels, Third Series, vol. ii. p. 66. 



TORMENT OCCASIONED BY THEM. 197 

the night upon the bare earth, protected from the 
mosquitoes by creeping into a kind of sack, sufficient 
only for the covering of a single person." In a note, 
he adds, that the Cossacks sometimes scoop a hollow 
in the ancient tombs, or construct a shed of reeds in 
these places, and light large fires in order to fill the 
area -with smoke ; flying to their suffocating ovens, 
in the most sultry weather, to escape the mosquitoes. 
Yet, notwithstanding all these precautions, many of 
the soldiers stationed along the Kuban died in con- 
sequence of mortification produced by the bites of 
these insects.* Humboldt informs us, in speaking 
of one district in the equinoctial regions of the New 
Continent, "that the superior of the Missions, when 
he would make the lay brothers return to their duty, 
menaces sometimes to send them to Esmeralda ; that 
is, say the monks, to be condemned to moschettoes ; 
to be devoured by these buzzing flies, with which 
God has peopled the earth to chastise man."f Else- 
where, the same philosophical writer remarks, — " It 
were to be wished, that a learned Entomologist could 
study, on the spot, the specific differences of these 
noxious insects, which, in spite of their littleness, 
act an important part in the economy of nature. 

* Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa. By Edward Daniel Clarke, 
LL.D. Second ed. p. 387. 
t Personal Narrative, vol. v. p. 508. 



198 THE GADFLY. 

What appeared to us very remarkable, and is a fact 
known to all the missionaries, is, that the different 
species do not associate together, and that at differ- 
ent hours of the day you are stung by distinct species. 
Every time that the scene changes, and, to use the 
simple expression of the missionaries, other insects 
" mount guard," you have a few minutes, often a 
quarter of an hour, of repose." * 

How constant must be the suffering, when a respite 
of a few minutes is a fact too obvious to escape 
general observation ! and what reason have we to be 
thankful, that we are free from such incessant 
torment ! 

But among the multitude of flies to which my at- 
tention has been directed in the course of the present 
letter, I had almost forgotten one species, mentioned 
by Shakspeare himself, under the name of " Brize." 
It is that we usually term the gadfly (CEstrus bovis). 
With its habits, your present residence in the coun- 
trry will afford you ample opportunities of becoming 
acquainted ; and, in fact, the terror which it inspires 
among our herds, is such as to attract the notice of 
the most superficial observer. In this, as in many 
other instances, we find our poets furnish us with the 
most striking, and, at the same time, the most accu- 
rate description. The gadflies appear during the 
* Personal Narrative, vol. v. p. 93. 



SUFFERINGS ENDURED FROM IT BY CATTLE. 199 

hottest portion of our summer; and hence, among 
the phenomena characteristic of that season, Thom- 
son depicts the effect which their attack produces on 
a herd of cattle : — 

" Tossing the foam, 

They scorn the keeper's voice, and scour the plain, 
Through all the bright severity of noon : 
While from their labouring breasts, a hollow moan 
Proceeding, runs low-bellowing round the hills." 

From the sudden consternation and precipitate flight 
of the cattle, Shakspeare introduces a comparison, 
which, though not descriptive of one who, like 
Cleopatra, beggar'd all description, marks well the 
abruptness and sudden phrenzy of her retreat from 
the naval conflict, and is highly appropriate in the 
mouth of the excited Scarus : — 

" Yon ribald nag of Egypt, 

Whom leprosy o'ertake ! i' the midst o' the fight,— 
When vantage like a pair of twins appear'd 
Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,— 
The brize upon her, like a cow in June, 
Hoists sail, and flies." 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. Sc. IX. 

In another line, Shakspeare has indicated even more 
strongly the sufferings which cattle endure from 
this insect : — 

" The herd hath more annoyance by the brize 
Than by the tiger."— Troilns and Cressida, Act I. Sc. III. 

Now it is not a little curious, that the terror thus 



200 various species of oestrus. 

evinced by our cattle does not, in the opinion of 
Mr. Bracey Clarke,* proceed from the infliction of a 
painful wound, but solely from the alarm occasioned 
by a peculiar sound emitted by the CEstri, while 
hovering for the purpose of oviposition. This view 
would corroborate the description given by Virgil, 
both as regards the existence of such a sound, and 
its apparent effect upon the herd. The remarkable 
accuracy of the passage has induced Kirby and 
Spencef to present it to their readers in the follow- 
ing translation, which I transcribe, that you may have 
the pleasure of comparing it with the original : — 

" Through waving groves, where Selo's torrent flows, 
And where, Alborno, thy green Ilex grows, 
Myriads of insects flutter in the gloom, 
(CEstrus in Greece, Asilus named at Rome), 
Fierce and of cruel hum. By the dire sound, 
Driven from the woods and shady glens around, 
The universal herds in terror fly ; 
Their lowings shake the woods and shake the sky, 
And Negros' arid shore." — Georgics, Book III. 

The whole history of the CEstri is singular ; and 
the ox, the horse, and the sheep, in these countries, 
are alike subject to their attack, but in different 
ways. The species which attacks the ox (GE. bovis) 
deposits its eggs on the back of the animal. These, 

* Linnaean Transactions, vol. xv. p. 407. 
t Introduction, vol. i. p. 149. 



BOTS IN HORSES. 



201 



when hatched into grubs, produce the tumours so 
well known among the country people by the name of 
" wurbles." One of the species devoted to the horse 
(Gasterophilus equi), lays its eggs, not indiscriminately 




Gasterophilus Equi. 

over the body, but about the parts which are most 
liable to be licked by the tongue of the animal. They 
are thus taken into the stomach, and transformed into 
larvae, in this countiy universally termed " bots." As 
the connexion of these creatures with a two-winged 
fly was in former times unknown, it is no wonder that 
their origin was attributed to other causes. Hence, 
Mr. Clarke, in the able Memoir already quoted, re- 
marks, — " Our ancestors imagined that poverty, or 
improper food, engendered these animals, or that_^ 
they were the offspring of putrefaction. In Shak- ! 
speare's " Henry the Fourth," Part I., the ostler at 
Rochester says, " Pease and beans are as dank here 
as a dog ; and that is the way to give poor jades the 
bots ;" and one of the misfortunes of the miserable 



202 IDENTITY WITH THE OISTROS. 

nag of Petruchio is, that " he is so begnawn with 
the bots." 

Without entering on the peculiar habits of the 
sheep-fly (CE. ovis), I shall now conclude this brief 
notice of some of our British CEstri, whose obscure 
and singular habitations are the stomach and intes- 
tines of the horse, the frontal and maxillary sinuses 
of sheep, and beneath the skin of the backs of horned 
cattle."* They form, however, a striking example 
of the influence exerted by insects over the health 
and comfort of our domestic quadrupeds. 

To you, it may, perhaps, be interesting to examine 
what has been said of them by classical writers, and 
to enter into the question, whether or not the Oistros 
of the ancients was, or was not, the insect to which 
the same name was applied by Linnaeus. If so, I 
refer you to two papers in the "Transactions of the 
Linnsean Society," advocating conflicting opinions 
on this subject, the negative being contended for 
by Mr. W. S. Macleay (vol. xiv. p. 353), and the 
affirmative maintained by Mr. Bracey Clarke (vol. 
xv. p. 402). One thing, however, is obvious, — that 
the inquiry proposed has not been deemed unin- 
teresting by that learned body, which has thus de- 
voted many pages of its valuable " Transactions," to 

*Mr, B. Clarke, Linn. Trans, vol.iii. p. 291. 



" FLIES AT BARTHOLOMEW TIDE." 203 

determine the identity of one of those two-winged 
insects which have formed the subject of my present 
communication. 

I now take leave of the Diptera ; but before doing 
so let me call your attention to a passage, which I 
frankly confess my inability to elucidate. In " Henry 
the Fifth," Act V. Sc. II., he makes Burgundy say — 
" Maids well summer'd and warm kept, are like flies 
at Bartholomew tide, — blind, though they have their 
eyes ; and then, they will endure handling, which 
before would not abide looking on." This curious 
comparison is passed over in silence by all the 
commentators to whose notes I have had access ; 
and even Douce, who has shed his antiquarian 
lore over so many ancient customs and opinions, 
is on this point altogether silent. Among school- 
boys, in some parts of the country, there is a preva- 
lent idea, that flies become blind about the beginning 
of autumn, which is the very belief which Shakspeare 
has laid hold of, and thus embodied. But still the 
question naturally recurs, how could such an opinion 
ever have become general ? As the house-fly (Musca 
domestica) has not lost its activity so early as the 
24th of August, Mr. Haliday has suggested to me 
that Musca rudis, which begins to swarm about 
windows at the approach of autumn, might be the 



204 THE FLEA. 

species alluded to. Its stupid inaction, which is so 
great that the fly appears almost devoid of the power 
of movement, would countenance this supposition. 
But still, it does not explain why the insect should be 
supposed to be blind. Sluggish, it certainly is ; but 
why should it be represented as deprived of sight ? 
Perhaps you can ferret out for me some " tale of the 
times of old," some forgotten legend, some expected 
superstition, which may irradiate the origin of the 
belief now shrouded in the gloom and uncertainty of 
former ages. 

On the habits of the little insect which figured 
upon Bardolph's nose, it is not my intention to en- 
large. I mentioned formerly, that it belonged to 
the order Aphaniptera, and described the apparatus 
by which it inflicts a wound. I now merely remark, 
that from the frequent mention of it by Shakspeare, 
it is evident there was no scarcity of them in " mer- 
rie England" during the days of good Queen Bess. 
The carriers in "Henry the Fourth," complain of 
them.* They are alluded to in the colloquy between 
Shallow and his man Davy.f And even the Duke 
of Orleans, without reproach to manhood be it 
spoken, is represented as saying to the Constable of 

* Henry IV., First Part, Act II. Sc. I. 
t Henry IV., Second Part, Act V. Sc. I. 



FREQUENTLY MENTIONED BY SHAKSPEARE. 205 

France, " That 's a valiant flea that dare eat his 
breakfast on the lip of a lion."* Sir Toby Bslch 
indicates his opinion of the valour, or rather of the 
want of valour, in Sir Andrew Ague-cheek, by the 
assertion, " If he were opened, and you find so much 
blood in his liver as will clog the foot of a flea, I'll 
eat the rest of the anatomy." f And Mrs, Ford shows 
she has been a witness to the execution of at least 
one of these " wild fowl," when she exclaims, as her 
jealous husband searches the clothes basket, " If you 
find a man there he shall die a flea's death." J How- 
ever, all these authorities may not inspire you with 
any admiration for the insect. Even its astonishing 
strength, sufficient to draw miniature coaches and 
cannon, and its leaps, so disproportionate to its size, 
may fail to make you regard it with complacence. 
To you, the old lady mentioned by Kirby and Spence 
may appear to have been singular in her taste, when 
she exclaimed — " Dear, miss, don't you like fleas ! 
well, I think they are the prettiest little, merry things 
in the world. I never saw a dull flea in all my 
life." § If such be the case, I shall not ask you lo 
forego your old opinions ; but I trust, when you are 

* Henry V., Act III. Sc. VII. 

t Twelfth Night, Act III. Sc. II. 

% Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV. Sc. II. 

§ Introduction, vol. i. p. 100. 



206 



A TEACHER OF HUMILITY. 



musing on the lofty pre-eminence of " man, proud 
man," and chance to suffer from these little assail- 
ants, you will imbibe a lesson of humility from their 
attack, and say in the spirit, if not in the words of 
the banished Duke : — 

" These are counsellors, 

That feelingly persuade me what I am." 

As You Like It, Act II. Sc. I. 





Weaving spiders, come not here : 
Hence, ye long legg'd spinners, hence. 

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S BREAM,.' 



It might appear strange to you, my dear friend, if 
among the insects mentioned in Shakspeare's plays, 
I did not mention the spider. Perhaps it may seem 
more strange to say, that it is not an insect at all. 
Still, although such is the case, I shall bow at the 
shrine of custom, and allow the spider to form the 
subject of a letter, in the same manner as if the 
popular classification were correct. 

Spiders are not arranged by Naturalists with 
insects properly so called, but occupy a place between 



208 SPIDERS NOT CLASSED WITH INSECTS. 

crabs, lobsters, &c, or crustaceous animals, and those 
now designated as insects. The position thus 
allotted to them is just, from a consideration of their 
physical structure. They have no antennae, those 
flexile appendages somewhat resembling horns, 
which you have a thousand times observed in the 
butterfly ; and which have been supposed, by various 
authors, to be organs of hearing, of smell, of feel- 
ing, or of some unknown sense, although the opinion 
that they are organs of touch, is that now gene- 
rally received. Spiders, on their liberation from the 
egg, are perfectly formed, although very minute, and 
they do not, like insects, undergo transformations. 
Many of them breathe through lungs, and hence their 
respiratory apparatus forms another ground of dis- 
tinction. Still, as Ave are, in common parlance, in 
the habit of speaking of them as insects, a slight 
notice of their habits cannot be altogether out of 
place. 

They are all predaceous, and live upon small in- 
sects, which they are able to overcome. This is 
effected, however, in very different ways. Some spin 
the webs, which are the abhorrence of all tidy house- 
keepers ; others construct those nets, which, when 
glittering in the morning sun, and bright as the dew- 
drops by which they are surrounded, every one has 
at some time or other regarded with admiration ; 



MODES OF CAPTURING THEIR PREY. 209 

others do not take the trouble of weaving, but, choos- 
ing a place of concealment, " in ambush wait" the 
approach of their unsuspecting prey. It is, probably, 
of this kind, that the Prisoner of Chillon speaks, 
when he sa} r s, — 

" With spiders I had friendship made, 
And watch'd them in their sullen trade." 

Stanza XIV. 

Another tribe, distinguished by the appropriate name 
of " Hunters," are for ever roaming about, " seeking 
whom they may devour." The singular habits of 
the Arachnids, but more especially of those which 
construct nets for the capture of their insect food, 
have in all ages attracted attention ; and the natural 
sympathy we feel in seeing the weak overcome and 
destroyed by a foe too powerful for them to oppose, 
and which unites stratagem to strength, has caused 
the spider to be considered as 

"cunning and fierce, 



Mixture abhorr'd. " 

Thomson's Summer. 

I shall not lose time by endeavouring to vindicate its 
character, convinced that you will not deem any 
animal cruel, which exercises for its support those 
instincts with which it has been endowed by its 
Creator ; but shall proceed to direct your attention 



210 " THE LABOURING SPIDER." 

to some of those passages in which Shakspeare 
evinces his knowledge of the habits of spiders, and 
his cognizance of the general feeling of mankind 
concerning them. 

When, in the " Merchant of Venice," Bassanio 
has opened the leaden casket containing " fair Por- 
tia's counterfeit," and is giving vent to the admira- 
tion which so excellent a delineation of her beauty- 
excites, his words allude to the destruction which 
the spider's web promotes : — 

" Here, in her hairs, 

The painter plays the spider, and hath woven 
A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men 
Faster than gnats in cobwebs."— Act III. Sc. II. 

To the same insect, Plantagenet compares the state 
of his own mind : — 

" My brain, more busy than the labouring spider, 
Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies." 

Second Part King Henri/ VI., Act III. Sc. I. 

The epithets "labouring" and "tedious," are applied 
with peculiar felicity, for they denote the protracted 
labours, the industry and perseverance, evinced in 
the fabrication of the snare. 

When Queen Margaret is hurling imprecations on 
her enemies, she is turned from her encounter with 
Gloster, by a remark made by the Queen : and while 



FRAGILITY OF THE THREAD. 211 

a pitying spirit seems for a moment to supplant her 
rage, she addresses her successor in the words — 

" Poor, painted Queen ! vain flourish of my fortune ! 
Why strewest thou sugar on that bottled spider, 
Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about ?" 

Richard III., Act I. Sc. III. 

In another part of the same play, the epithet "bottled," 
is again applied in a similar manner : — 

"That bottled spider, that foul hunchback'd toad." 

Act IV. Sc. IV. 

And in both instances we may suppose it is used on 
account of the peculiar shape of the spider's body. 

The weakness of the web is almost proverbial : 
hence it is employed by Job, in speaking of the hypo- 
crite, — " Whose trust shall be a spider's web" (c. viii. 
v. 14). 

In a similar signification it has been most appro- 
priately employed by Young — 

" The spider's most attenuated thread 
Is cord, is cable, to man's tender tie 
On earthly bliss ; it breaks at every breeze." 

Night Thoughts, Night I. 

In foreign countries, instances very much the re- 
verse of this might be brought forward ; for the threads 
spun by spiders form no inconsiderable obstacle to 
the progress of a man through the woods where they 

p 2 



212 ITS COMPOUND STRUCTURE. 

abound, as a friend of mine at Sierra Leone has not 
unfrequently experienced. In France, gloves and 
stockings have been fabricated of their silk, but in 
this country it is characterised by extreme fragility. 
Hence, the spider's web is mentioned by Falcon- 
bridge, when impressing on Hubert, after the death 
of Arthur, the conviction, that the slightest and most 
trifling thing would be sufficient for his destruction, 
if accessory " to this deed of death :" — 

" If thou did'st but consent 
To this most cruel act, do but despair, 
And if thou want'st a cord, the smallest thread 
That ever spider twisted from her womb, 
Will serve to strangle thee." 

King John, Act IV. Sc. III. 

Slight, and even simple as the threads of the spider 
may appear, they are not so in reality ; and this 
forms one of the many examples in which the eye of 
the Naturalist discerns some concealed elegance or 
complex mechanism, in things which are daily be- 
fore " the eyes of men," and yet are never seen as 
they are seen by him. The observations of Reaumur 
and Leeuwenhoek have incontestably shown that a 
" spider's thread, even spun by the smallest species, 
and when so fine that it is almost imperceptible to 
our senses, is not, as we suppose, a single line, but a 
rope composed of at least four thousand strands!"* 

* Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 405. 



USED AS A STYPTIC AND SOPORIFIC. 213 

In the equipage of Queen Mab, 

" The traces of the smallest spider's web," 

are in keeping with the rest of her appointments ; 
and well were they adapted for her regal state, for 
no eastern potentate ever harnessed his foaming 
steeds by traces of so complicated a structure. 




Epeira diadema. 

The web of the common house- spider has long 
been employed in stopping the effusion of blood. 
This has not escaped the all-pervading eye of 
Shakspeare ; and hence, Bottom, in addressing one 
of his fairy attendants, says, — 

" I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master Cobweb 
If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you." 

Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III. Sc. I. 

Its medicinal virtues do not end here, for Professor 



214 WEB OF THE HOUSE AND GARDEN SPIDERS. 

Hentz states, that the web " is narcotic, and has 
been administered internally, in some cases of fever, 
with success." * 

The threads composing the webs of the house- 
spiders appear to be formed entirely of one kind of 
silk, and flies are caught by their claws being en- 
tangled in the meshes. It is not so with those which 
are situated in the open air, and which exhibit 
so much regularity of structure, as to be termed 
Geometric. Mr. Blackwall, in a late number of the 
" Transactions of the Linnean Society," states, that 
" they are composed of three kinds of silk ; and that 
although the nets lose their viscidity when exposed to 
the influence of sun and weather, yet, when artifi- 
cially protected from the effects of these, they retain 
it almost unimpaired for many months." f In those 
webs, the threads forming the circles are closely 
studded with minute dew-like globules, which, in 
fact, are composed of a viscid gum, sufficiently adhe- 
sive to retain the insects which fly into the net. 
Those concentric circles lose their viscidity by ex- 
posure to the air, and in ordinary circumstances are 
renewed every twenty- four hours. I 

Shakspeare seems, in my opinion, to have been 
aware that there are differences in the habits of 

* Silliman's " Journal of Science," October, 1831, p. 103. 

f Entomological Magazine, No. v. p. 446. 

i Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 419. 



sSakspbabe's knowledge of their habits. 215 

spiders ; some of them constructing nets, and others 
not doing so. I am led to form this belief, from a 
passage in the " Midsummer Night's Dream." Tita- 
nia is reclining on the bank " whereon the wild thyme 
blows," and her fairy attendants are obeying her 
commands, " Sing me now asleep :" — 

" 'Vyeaving spiders, come not here ; 
Hence, ye long-legged spinners, hence. 

Act II. Sc. III. 

By " weaving spiders," must of course be meant 
some of those which construct nets in the open air ; 
but the words "long-legged spinners," do not seem 
to me to be a synonymous expression, but to denote an 
entirely different tribe. Of those long-legged, or 
shepherd spiders (Phahmgidce), which do not spin 
nets, but seize their prey by violence, Latreille says — 
" La plupart vivent a terre, sur les plantes, au bas 
des arbres, et sont tres-agiles ; d'autres se cachent 
sous la pierre, dans la mousse." * They, of course, 
would naturally abound in situations similar to that 
in which Titania is placed. The word " spinner," 
may justly, I think, be considered as a generic term 
for spider, and not as indicating that the one to 
which it is applied actually spins. This inference 
does not appear to be unnatural or improbable ; — 

"The court awards it, and the law doth give it ;" 

Merchant of Venice, Act IV. Sc. I. 

* Le Regne Animal, tome iii. p. 114. Paris, 1817. 



216 THEIR POISONOUS FLUID. 

and, if I am right in my conjecture, the passage fur- 
nishes another proof that what Shakspeare describes 
is true and correct, for it is that which " he has seen 
with his own eyes." 

My single-hearted and talented friend, Sheridan 
Knowles, has very happily noticed the spider, the 
snail, and the nut- worm, in his popular drama of the 
"Hunchback." Helen is rallying Julia on her de- 
claration— " I'm constancy : " — 

" I'm glad I know thy name ! 

The spider comes of the same family, 

That in his meshy fortress spends his life, 

Unless you pull it down, and scare him from it. 

And so thou 'rt constancy ? Art proud of that ? 

I'll warrant thee, I'll match thee with a snail, 

From year to year that never leaves his house ! 

Such constancy, forsooth!— A constant grub, 

That houses ever in the self-same nut 

Where he was born ; till hunger drives him out, 

Or plunder breaketh thro' his castle wall! 

And so, in very deed, thou 'rt constancy ! "—Act I. Sc. II. 

All spiders are furnished with a poisonous fluid, 
conveyed in their fangs ; but its effects seem to have 
been greatly over-rated. There is one species (Theri- 
dium verecundum) mentioned by Professor Hentz, in 
the paper already quoted, as being well known in the 
Southern States of America, the people there con- 
sidering its bite to be very poisonous. A glass of 
brandy is stated, however, to produce instant relief, 
and to arrest the violent symptoms arising from its 



NOT NOXIOUS TO MAN. 217 

bite, by inducing a reaction in the system. I am 
not aware that any of our native Aruchnidce have 
occasioned actual suffering to man ; yet, that they 
are full of venom, is the universal belief; and in 
accordance with it, King Richard II., in saluting the 
" dear earth" on which he stands, after 

"late tossing on the breaking seas," 

accosts it thus : — 

" Feed not thy sovereign's foes, my gentle earth, 
Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense ; 
But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom, 
And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way, 
Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet, 
Which with usurping steps do trample thee." 

Act III. Sc. II. 

From another passage, it is evident that Shakspeare 
believed that any injury a spider might occasion, 
arose more from the imagination of the sufferer 
than the venom of the spider : — 

" There may be in the cup, 

A spider steep'd, and one may drink, depart, 
And yet partake no venom ; for his knowledge 
Is not infected ; but if one present 
The abhorr'd ingredient to his eye make known, 
How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides. 
With violent hefts."— Winter's Tale, Act II. Sc. I. 

It is gratifying to the Naturalist, to find in a being 
regarded by the bulk of mankind as so obnoxious, 
the manifestations of parental attachment. On the 



218 THEIR PARENTAL ATTACHMENT. 

genus Lycosa, Professor Hentz remarks, — " We may- 
witness astonishing instances of maternal tenderness 
and courage, and that, too, in the most cruel race of 
animals ; a race, in which ferocity renders even the 
approach of the sexes a perilous act, and condemns 
every individual to perpetual solitude and apprehen- 
sions of its own kind. When a mother is found 
with the cocoon containing the progeny, if this be 
forcibly torn from her, she turns round and grasps it 
with her mandibular. All her limbs, one by one, may 
then be torn from her body, without forcing her to 
abandon her hold. But if, without mangling the 
mother, the cocoon be skilfully removed from her, 
and suddenly thrown out of sight, she instantaneously 
loses all her activity, seems paralyzed, and coils her 
tremulous limbs as if mortally wounded : if the bag 
be returned, her ferocity and strength are restored 
the moment she has any perception of its presence, 
and she rushes to her treasure to defend it to the 
last." * 

The harmony which nature has established between 
ths colours of these insects and the places which 
they inhabit, must not be passed in silence. The 
species of Epeira, which weave their webs in the 
air, the Thomisi, which hide themselves in flowers, 
and the Sparassi, which run over the green sward, 
* Silliman's " Journal of Science," Oct. 1831, p. 107. 



THE GOSSAMER. 219 

have the hody either of an uniform lively green, 
yellow, or purple colour, or varied with handsome 
markings ; whilst the Mygale, Lycosce, and Aranece, 
which conceal themselves under stones and in obscure 
situations, are of brown, black, or other obscure 
colours, like the places where they reside. 

I must not leave this part of my subject without 
referring to the silvery threads of gossamer, which 
are so frequently seen extending from bush to bush, 
from furrow to furrow, and glancing with iridescent 
brightness in the morning sun. Their origin was 
formerly unknown. Spencer speaks of them as 
"scorched dew;" and Thomson mentions, in his 
" Autumn," " the filmy threads of dew evaporate ;" 
which no doubt refers to the same object. The 
gossamer is now known to be the production of 
a minute spider. It is twice mentioned by Shak- 
speare ; but not in connexion with the little being 
from whom it originates, and with which he was most 
probably unacquainted. One of the passages is 
familiar to every one : — 

" A lover may bestride the gossamer, 
That idles in the wanton summer air, 
And yet not fall, so light is vanity.'' 

Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Sc. VI. 

and the other is put into the mouth of Edgar, when 



220 MENTIONED BY SHAKSPEARE AND HOGG. 

he accosts his father, after his supposed leap from 
that 

" Cliff, whose high and bending head 
Looks fearfully on the confined deep."— 

" Had'st thou been aught but gossamer, feather, air, 
So many fathom down precipitating, 
Thou had'st shiver'd like an egg." 

Lear, Act IV. Sc. VI. 

In both instances, it is expressive of extreme light- 
ness. In the same manner, is is used by Hogg, in 
the " Queen's Wake :" — 

" Light as the fumes of fervid wine, 
Or foam belts floating on the brine, 
The gossamers in air that sail, 
Or down that dances in the gale." 

And the same poet has introduced it as a vehicle fit 
for the fairy bands, which he describes as 

"sailing mid the golden air 

In skiffs of yielding gossamer." 

Thus, beautiful in its appearance, and rich in poetic 
associations, the " restless gossamer"* comes recom- 
mended to our notice, and courting our inquiry. 
But the subject is still involved in obscurity, and is 
one of those in which your own personal observation 
might solve many doubts, and explain many diffi- 
culties. Two opposite opinions respecting it have 
been ably advocated by authors, both of whom are 

* Coleridge's " Ancient Mariner." 



THEORIES RESPECTING ITS EMISSION. 221 

entitled to high respect and consideration. One of 
these gentlemen, Mr. John Murray, says, — " The 
aeronautic spider can propel its threads both horizon- 
ally and vertically, and at all relative angles, in mo- 
tionless air, and in an atmosphere agitated by winds; 
nay, more, the aerial traveller can even dart its 
thread, to use a nautical phrase, in the " wind's 
eye." My opinion and observation are based upon 
many hundred experiments. The entire phenomena 
are electrical." * 

Mr. Blackwall, on the other hand, states, and I 
concur in his opinion, that the glutinous matter 
emitted from the abdomen is carried out into a line, 
only in those situations where the insects are exposed 
to a current of air. When a glass bell was placed 
over them, they " remained seventeen days, evidently 
unable to produce a single line by which they could 
quit the branch they occupied, without encountering 
the water" in which its base was immersed. f From 
this, and many subsequent experiments, Mr. Black- 
wall is " confident in affirming that, in motionless air, 
spiders have not the power of darting their threads 
even through the space of half an inch.":]; 

It is not a little singular, that many very accurate 

* Insect Architecture, p. 345. 
t Linnean Transactions, vol. xv. pt. ii. p. 456. 
t Magazine of Natural History, vol. ii. p. 397. 



222 IS FOUND AT ALL SEASONS. 

observations on this subject were made by President 
Edwards, when he was only twelve years of age. 
They are detailed by him in a letter written in 1715, 
and published in a New York edition of his works, 
in 1829. It is republished in Silliman's "Journal 
of Science," Vol. xxi., with many interesting remarks 
from the learned editor of that periodical ; and it 
countenances the opinion, that it is by the action of 
the " gently moving air," that the thread is drawn 
out to what length the spider pleases. 

The threads of the gossamer are more abundant 
in autumn than at any other period of the year. 
But I have seen them at all seasons, and never with 
greater pleasure, than when crusted with hoar-frost, 
and glittering like little garlands of minute icicles. 
In fact, they delighted me so much in their new garb, 
that I took the earliest opportunity afterwards, of 
embodying in rhyme the ideas which they suggested. 
To you, I shall make no apology for the imperfections 
of the verses, for I do not fear your criticism. The 
criticism of a friend, like " the quality of mercy, is 
not strained," and "blessethhim that gives, and him 
that takes." 

It was a pleasant winter morn ; 

Through all the silent night, 
The sides had been of azure hue, 

And countless stars were bright. 



VERSES SUGGESTED BY ITS APPEARANCE. 223 

The sun in golden glories came, 

And shot his glancing ray 
Across the woods, and o'er the fields, 

"With hoar-frost glittering gay. 

That lovely, pearly, brilliant frost, 

The landscape overspread, 
Like cold and fleeting beauties, which 

Adorn the youthful dead. 

In every field each blade of grass, 

On every tree each spray, 
Was with fantastic garlands hung, 

As for some festal day. 

And yet as numberless and bright, 

And beautifully placed, 
As though Titania's fairy train, 

The fading leaves had graced. 

What could they be ? I paused to gaze, 

And soon delighted found, 
They were the gossamer's light threads, 

With ice encrusted round. 

That thread was like the poet's thought, 

The child of sunny hours, 
Which often is by ice conceal' d, 

Or swept away by showers. 



The icicles which clustered round 
That graceful, fragile thread, 

Were brilliant as an infant's dream, — 
Pure as the sainted dead. 

They were like human loves, which hang 

By links as frail and light, 
A breath may rend them, and, alas ! 

They ne'er can reunite. 



224 VERSES SUGGESTED BY THE GOSSAMER. 

As dew they would have gaily shone, 
Kiss'd by the morning breeze ; 

As icicles, how changed they are, 
Yet not the less they please. 

Thus, o'er all Nature's works, we see 

That Beauty walks abroad ; 
And every change is lovely there, 

Because ordain'd by God. 





I rejoice, my clear friend, at the willingness you 
now express to enter into my favourite pursuit, and 
at the alacrity which breathes throughout the entire 
of your last letter. I hail it as the intimation that 
your apathy has been dispelled, that your listlessness 
has been flung aside, and that your vigorous and 
cultivated mind is about to find full employment for 
its varied powers of action. 

Q 



226 INSECTS NOT MENTIONED BY SHAKSPEARE. 

"The gorgeous insect hovering in the air," 

will not monopolize your attention, although it will 
rouse your admiration. The less conspicuous in- 
habitant of the " impregnable and gnarled oak," 
whether residing in the leaves or in the trunk, will 
be sought for, — places you formerly regarded as 
" barren, barren, barren," will now be explored, — 

"The green myriads in the peopled grass," 

will be examined, — and 

" By paved fountain, or by rushy brook, 
Or on the beached margent of the sea," 

(Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II. Sc. II.) 

you will find the countless objects of your observa- 
tion and research. It seems to me right, however, 
that before closing the present series of letters, I 
should introduce to your notice some tribes of insects 
which have not been mentioned by Shakspeare, and 
relate some circumstances with respect to their his- 
tory, which invest them either with interest or im- 
portance. You well know, " I have no superfluous 
leisure ; my stay must be stolen out of other affairs ; 
but I will attend you awhile," until the object I have 
now mentioned be accomplished. 

And first, let me bring forward the singular habits 
of a large and important family of insects, the 
Ichneumonidce. These singular beings deposit their 



THE ICHXEUMOXID-E. 



227 



eggs, not in a waxen cell, not on the leaf of a plant, 
not in a silken bag constructed for the purpose, — 
but actually in the body of a living caterpillar. To 




Pimp/a manifestator depositing its eggs. 

insects of this tribe, Linnaeus gave the name of 
Ichneumon, from the analogy between their services 
and those of the ichneumons of Egypt : the former 
as the destroyer of insects, the latter as the de- 
vourers of serpents, the eggs of crocodiles, &c. 
When I mention that about three thousand species 
of ichneumons are at present known and described, 
it will be obvious that it would be impossible to en- 
ter into many details respecting them. I shall 

Q.2 



228 THEIR OVIPOSITION 

therefore merely mention some of the peculiar habits 
of the tribe, and this I shall principally do in the 
words of Kirby and Spence. 

" The habits of this whole tribe, which properly 
includes a great number of distant genera, are simi- 
lar. They all oviposit in living insects, chiefly 
while in the larva state, sometimes while pupse {Ich. 
puparum L.)*, and even while in the egg state {Ich. 
ovulorum L.), but not, as far as is known, in perfect 
insects. The eggs thus deposited soon hatch into 
grubs, which immediately attack their victim, and in 
the end insure its destruction. The number of eggs 
committed to each individual varies according to its 
size, and that of the grubs which are to spring from 
them, being in most cases one only, but in ethers 
amounting to some hundreds. 

" From the observations hitherto made by Ento- 
mologists, the great body of the ichneumon tribe is 
principally employed in keeping within their pro- 
per limits the infinite host of lepidopterous larvae, 
destroying however many insects of other orders ; 
and perhaps, if the larvse of these last fell equally 
under our observation with those of the former, we 
might discover that few exist uninfested by their ap- 
propriate parasite. Such is the activity and address 
of the Ichneumonidae, that scarcely any concealment, 
except perhaps the waters, can secure their prey 

Q 2 



AND IMPORTANCE. 229 

from them; and neither hulk, courage, nor ferocity- 
avail to terrify them from effecting their purpose." * 

" An idea of the services rendered to us hy those 
ichneumons which prey upon noxious larvae may be 
formed from the fact, that out of thirty individuals of 
the common cabbage caterpillar (Papilio brassicce) 
which Reaumur put into a glass to feed, twenty-five 
were fatally pierced by an ichneumon (/. globatus) ; 
and if we compare the myriads of caterpillars that 
often attack our cabbages and brocoli with the small 
number of butterflies of this species which usually 
appear, we may conjecture that they are commonly 
destroyed in some such proportion, — a circumstance 
which will lead us thankfully to acknowledge the 
goodness of Providence, which, by providing such 
a check, has prevented the utter destruction of the 
Brassica genus, including some of our most esteemed 
and useful vegetables." f 

As these insects are so widely diffused, you will 
have no difficulty in obtaining specimens of various 
genera, and you will see at once that they belong 
to the same order as the bees, the wasps, and the 
ants, already described — the Hymenoptera. It is a 
remarkable fact, however, that these parasites, whose 
universal office it is in their first state of being to 
prey upon insects, are themselves liable to be preyed 

* Kirby and Spence, p. 264. t lb. vol. i. p. 266. 



230 DRAGON-FLIES. 

on in turn. Other species of ichneumons act to- 
wards them as they have acted towards the caterpil- 
lar, in whose living body they are enclosed. And 
these more minute Ichneumonidse are sometimes 
so numerous as to destroy, it is said, the tithe of 
the kinds they attack. Should you be disposed to 
seek for information respecting the nomenclature 
and classification of these singular and interesting 
tribes, I would refer you to the " Essay on the 
Classification of Parasitic Hymenoptera," published 
in the Entomological Magazine, by A. H. Haliday, 
Esq., Clifden. 

Let me now introduce you to another family, 
whose bodies are long and tapering, and who are 
adorned with four wings of a texture surpassing in 
beauty the finest net- work, and glowing in the sun- 
shine with a splendid iridescence of colouring. Such 
might have existed in the imagination of Pope, when 
penning his description of the Sylphs attendant on 
Belinda : — 

" Some to the sun their insect-wing unfold, 
Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold." 

Rape of the Loch, Canto ii. 

They differ considerably in size, and many of the 
smallest are arrayed in the most brilliant costume, 
being in the softest green, or in the brightest azure. 
Others assume a crimson uniform, while those among 



RAPACITY OF THE LARV.E. 



231 



whom they are found exhibit a mottled livery of 
brown, white, and yellow. You will conjecture I am 
alluding to the dragon-flies (Libellulina MacLeay), 
for those creatures, whose appearance is so rich, so 
graceful, and so airy, bear that terrifying appellation. 
I must admit that the epithet is justly applied, for 
their whole life is one continued scene of destruction. 




a, The Dragon-fly making its exit from the pupa; b, The same drying 
its icings. 

They are found so early as May, and I have seen 
them "labouring in their vocation" on the 4th of 
October. In their larva state they reside in water ; 
and here they are the terror of aquatic insects, and 
even the successful assailant of the smaller fishes. 
One, about an inch and a quarter in length, which I 
lifted in my hand with some water, from one of the 



232 RAPACIOUS HABITS 

ponds in our Botanic Garden, was in the act of 
preying on a tadpole, much more bulky than itself, 
and continued its operations without evincing the 
slightest discomposure. My relative, B. J. Clarke, 
Esq., of La Bergerie, Portarlington, on one occasion 
witnessed a struggle between one of these larvae and 
a full-grown stickleback of twice its size. The huge 
mandibles of the assailant were extended across the 
head of the fish, one being inserted into each eye : 
and although the larva was taken from the water, 
and held suspended by the tail, it never for a moment 
relaxed its hold of the prey. 

"When elevated from the water into the genial 
warmth of the summer sun, and gifted in their 
perfect state with their full powers of destruc- 
tion, they carry on a successful warfare against the 
other inhabitants of the air ; hawking over the pools 
and rivers, seizing the Phryganese and Ephemerae, lop- 
ping off their wings with great rapidity, and devour- 
ing their bodies. Nor are their attacks confined to 
these tribes : the elegant plumage which decks the 
Lepidoptera forms no protection, or perhaps makes 
them more conspicuous to their destroyer. Mr. 
B. J. Clarke has told me, that when fishing in the 
river Barrow, near that town, he has watched 
with great interest the proceedings of the large 
dragon-flies. Gardens and meadows extend in that 



OF THE PERFECT INSECT. 233 

neighbourhood down to the banks of the river, and 
of course the white butterflies are not unfrequently to 
be seen upon its margin. My informant has often 
observed the dragon-fly dart down as a hawk upon a 
quarry, seize with its legs a firm hold of the butter- 
fly, and carry it to a branch of one of the adjoining 
trees. In a moment one of the white wings would 
drop from the branch, then another would come 
wavering downwards, until the four had fallen, and 
the dragon-fly, after a short pause, would again 
dart forth in pursuit of a fresh victim. He never 
launched himself on his prey when on a perfect hori- 
zontal line with it ; but took care to be either some- 
what higher, or somewhat lower, so that he could 
seize it with his feet, 

Perhaps from this account of their rapacity you 
will deem our English name of dragon-fly more suit- 
able than the French term applied to the same 
inssect — " demoiselles." The translation of the latter 
term is however the word used by Moore, in his de- 
lightful little poem of " Paradise and the Peri." 

" When o'er the vale of Balbec winging 1 

Slowly, she sees a child at play, 
Among the sunny wild flowers singing, 

As rosy and as wild as they ; 
Chasing with eager hands and eyes 

The beautiful blue damsel flies, 
That flutter'd round the jasmine stems, 

Like winged flowers or flying gems." 



234 ATTRACTED BY PECULIAR COLOURS. 

Some of these insects (the Agrionidte) seem to be 
attracted by particular colours. I have been in- 
formed by a friend that they have repeatedly alighted 
on the blue " float" of his fishing-line, and that even 
five or six might be seen resting on it at the same 
moment. My relative, Mr. Jellett of Ballymena, 
observed, on the banks of the river near that town, 
great numbers of a different genus flying about some 
beech trees, and frequently alighting on the smooth 
and shining stones. It occurred to him that the 
light colour which the trunks exhibited in the sun- 
shine might be the attraction which brought the 
dragon-flies in such numbers to that place, rather 
than to any other. He instantly determined to put 
the accuracy of this idea to the test of experiment, 
laid aside the dark portions of his dress, and stood 
motionless, with his arms extended. A dragon fly 
almost immediately alighted on his breast, and was 
secured, another came in the course of a few minutes, 
and I have now in my cabinet five or six specimens 
taken on that occasion. They are of two species 
(Calepteryx Virgo and C. Ludoviciana) ; both are 
plentiful about the weir on the Barrow, near Portar- 
lington, but I have never seen either of them in the 
neighbourhood of Belfast. Strange that they should 
have been found at two places, one a hundred and 
thirty miles further north than the other, and yet 



NUMBER OF LENSES IN THE EYE. 235 

that they should not have been recognized in the 
intermediate locality ! 




k, The Dragon-fly, with its mask extended; B, the same, with the mask 
closed and discharging a current of water. 



The eyes of the dragon-fly are extremely beautiful, 
being prominent, and exhibiting an infinity of little 
hexagonal facets, These were counted by Leeuwen- 
hoek, and were found, in a single eye, to amount to 
12,000. Great as this number may appear, it is sur- 
passed by that exhibited in the eye of some other 
insects, for 17,325 have been actually reckoned in 
that of a butterfly. 

I have mentioned that the larva of the dragon-fly 
is an inhabitant of the water. It is in that state 



236 MASK OF THE LARVA. 

furnished with a most remarkable apparatus attached 
to the lower lip. It resembles a mask of singular 
construction, and is used, not only for seizing the 
prey, but also for holding it while the jaws perform 
their customary office. * But you may, perhaps, 
inquire, how comes it that the larva is found in the 
water, while the perfect insect dwells in the air, 
sports in the sunshine, and is the constant denizen 
of an element so different from that in which it for- 
merly dwelt ? You may ask, how, and under what 
circumstances, are the eggs deposited, so that the en- 
closed young may, on their exclusion, be surrounded 
by the fluid in which the first stage of their existence 
is to be passed ? I am glad, from the accurate obser- 
vation of Mr. B. J. Clarke, to be able to answer 
this question. He has, on several occasions this sum- 
mer(1835), seen the male and female dragon-fly alight 
on some of the aquatic plants in the canal adjoining 
his residence, having exhibited, while in the air, the 
strange appearance of one body, with a head at each 
extremity ; a phenomenon which may have attracted 
your attention. The male would then fling himself 
into the air and fly away. The female adopted a 
different course. She deliberately turned her head 



* For a most lucid description of this instrument, see Kirby and 
Spence, vol. iii. p. 125. 



ITS EGGS DEPOSITED UNDER WATER. 237 

downwards, descended the stem or leaf of the plant, 
to a depth of some inches below the surface of the 
water, and there remained, as he supposed, for the 
purpose of depositing her eggs. It was strange to 
see a creature, who, but a few minutes before, had 
been winging her way through the air, thus quietly 
abiding in a different element, while the great work of 
providing a suitable situation for her young was about 
being accomplished. On one occasion, my inform- 
ant, while she was thus engaged, touched her with 
the extremity of his fishing-rod; she then desisted 
from her work, crawled up to the surface, and after 
remaining there a few minutes, as if to allow the 
cause of her molestation to pass by, again directed 
her way downwards, and completed the important 
task in which she had been interrupted. 

An analogous fact with respect to one of the May- 
flies (Phryganea), was noticed in a pond, in our 
Botanic Garden, by Mr, Hyndman. He has kindly 
favoured me with the following note respecting it, 
dated May 27, 1833 : — " I first observed the Phry- 
ganea on the leaf of an aquatic plant, from which it 
crept down along the stem, under the water, very 
nearly a foot deep ; it appeared then to have been 
disturbed by some stickle-backs which approached, 
and seemed inclined to attack it, and swam vigorously 



238 



CADDIS-WORMS. 



and rapidly beneath the water, over to some other 
plants. I there took the insect up, and found a large 
bundle of eggs of a green colour, closely enveloped 
in a strong, jelly-like substance, attached to the ex- 
tremity of its abdomen. The bundle of eggs was of 
an oblong form, bent in the middle, and the two ends 
attached to the tail of the animal." 

The insects of this family are well known to you 
in their larva state, under the name of case-worms, 
or caddis-worms, and are to be found in every run- 




a, The Caddis-worm in cases of sand, shells, fyc. ; b, Grating of silk 
formed by the larva previous to assuming the pupa state; c, The 
Caddis-fly. 

ning stream, and almost in every ditch. Their 
habitations are extremely singular, and differ con - 
siderably, both in the materials employed, and in their 



MATERIALS WHICH FORM THEIR CASES. 239 

external configuration. Some are formed of nu- 
merous little pieces of grass, and stems of aquatic 
plants, cut into suitable lengths, and placed cross- 
ways, forming a rude polygonal figure ; others are 
constructed of bits of stick, or grains of sand or 
gravel, cemented strongly together ; and others, 
again, are composed of fresh- water shells, each con- 
taining its own proper inhabitant, — " a covering," 
as Kirby and Spence remark, " as singular, as if a 
savage, instead of clothing himself with squirrel 
skins, should sew together into a coat the animals 
themselves." 

Some of these cases exhibit shells of three or 
four different kinds, and are hence interesting to the 
Conchologist, as well as to the Entomologist. Three, 
now in my cabinet, present specimens, altogether, of 
seven fresh- water shells, namely : — Planorbis mar- 
ginutus, P. contortus, P. vortex, P. glaber {?), Cyclas 
cornea, Valvata obtusa, and Paludina impura. 

To protect themselves from the attacks of their 
enemies, and, at the same time, to give admission to 
the supply of water essential to their existence, the 
caddis-worms, before assuming the torpidity of 
their pupa state, adopt an ingenious expedient. They 
construct a kind of grating, which they fix across 
each extremity of their domicile, and thus provide 
at the same time for respiration and defence. It is 



240 SUBSTITUTE FOR THE USUAL GRATING. 

stated, that this grating is formed of a strong descrip- 
tion of silk, which the animal has the power of 
spinning, and which assumes, although under water, 
the necessary degree of consistence. In one of the 
cases in my possession, it is formed of a mass of 
minute portions of vegetable matter, so thick as 
almost to exclude water ; and two holes are formed 
at the sides of the case, close to the extremity, for 
the ingress of the fluid. In another, some small 
bivalve shells (Cyclas cornea) are agglutinated 
together : and as their convexity leaves some vacant 
spaces between each shell, the object of the grating 
is attained by a different procedure. It would seem, 
therefore, that the larvse, although endued with the 
power of forming a silken net- work, avoid the trouble 
of doing so, where the abundance of suitable mate- 
rials of a different description, renders such a labour 
unnecessary. They appear to have the power of 
secreting the silken substance for some time be- 
fore the period of their change into pupa?, if, in- 
deed, they do not possess it from the first. This 
opinion was formed on one occasion, when I had a 
few caddis-worms in a glass of water, for the pur- 
pose of observing their movements. One of large 
dimensions projected his body a considerable way 
from his covering, until it touched the case of a 
smaller caddis-worm in its vicinity, and after a 



GREAT WATER-BEETLE. 



•241 



peculiar kind of contortion, was again withdrawn 
The larger caddis-worm then put itself into motion ; 
and to my surprise, I found that the lesser one was 
attached by a silken cable to his more bulky com- 
panion, and towed after him as a jolly-boat would be 
towed by a cutter, without the means of offering any 
resistance to its progress. 

If you are attending to the proceedings of the 
caddis-worms in their natural habitats, you cannot 
fail to observe the rapid plunging movements of the 
great water-beetle {Dyticus marginalis). The male 
is easily distinguished from the female, by the 
curious hemispherical appendages on the anterior 
legs, which, acting like suckers, enable him to retain 




a, Larvc 



the perfect Dyticus manjliialin. 



i hold of his mate in the unstable element they in- 
labit. Though living in the water, he is, at times, 



242 ITS FLIGHT, AND ITS FOOD. 

especially in the evening, noticed in the air ; for he 
is furnished with ample wings, and can at pleasure 
change his abode from one pool to another. In the 
winter of 1830, we had here a very hard frost, which 
lasted for several days, and the large ponds in our 
Botanic Garden were completely frozen. The late 
Mr. James Drummond, whose untimely death at 
Cuba every Naturalist must regret, was at that time 
the curator of the garden. I was informed by him, 
that the very first day the ice was broken up by thaw, 
he observed several of these water-beetles flying to 
the pond, and plunging into the water. A Dyticus 
which I kept in a glass vessel seized with avidity 
any crumbs of bread that were thrown in, but I 
could never observe that they were actually eaten. 
It was not so with a piece of raw beef : for on it he 
feasted with great apparent relish. By supplying 
this description of food, Esper kept one alive in a 
glass vessel three years and a half. There is, how- 
ever, a kind of nutriment to which this insect 
appears even more partial, and this, I regret to say, 
is the smaller water-beetles, which it seizes and 
greedily devours. In its larva state, the Dyticus 
is equally formidable and rapacious ; and not con- 
tent with destroying the larvae of gnats, ephemera, 
&c, will attack animals of larger dimensions. I 
knew it on one occasion to seize a stickleback, and 



THE WATER-SCORPION BOAT-FLY. 243 

carry it off in despite of all the struggles of the fish * ; 
and the editors of the Entomologia Edinensis inform 
us, in speaking of the rapacity of the Dyticidce in 
the larva state, that they " observed one of the larger 
kinds transfix and suck out the juices of thirteen 
well-grown tadpoles, in a single day." 

I must not, however, dwell in this manner on all 
the insect inhabitants of the water, else you might 
dread I was about to become, as Dogberry would 
word it, " as tedious as a king." But I may mention, 
that if you expand the ashy-coloured elytra of one 
common insect, the water- scorpion (Nepa cinerea), 
you will be pleased to find, under so hard and dusky 
an exterior, a soft and delicate pair of wings, folded 
on a ground of a peculiar shade of scarlet. If you 
watch another, which is here very abundant, the 
boat-fly (Notonecta glanca), lying on his back, and 
using his long and delicately-fringed feet as oars to 
impel him along, beware of taking him in your hand, 
or you may find by experience, as I have done, that 
the wound inflicted by his rostrum is both sharp and 



* For an interesting- fact with respect to our Irish three-spined 
stickleback, we are indebted to the observation of W. Thompson, 
Esq., Vice-President of our Natural History Society. He has pointed 
out the differential characters between it and the three English spe- 
cies described by Mr. Yarrell, and shown its identity with the Gas- 
terosteus brachycentrus of Cuvier, found in the brooks of Tuscany.— 
Vide Proceedings of IAnnean Society, in the London and Edinburgh 
Phil. Mag. and Journal of Science, vol. v. p. 229. 

R 2 



244 ATTRACTIONS OF ENTOMOLOGY. 

sudden. And if you continue your observations, 
you cannot fail to see insects of a different tribe 
(Hydrometridce Leech), which scorn to adopt so 
common a procedure as swimming in the water, and 
who perform, with astonishing rapidity, the more 
wonderful feat of running upon its surface. 

By the aid of Entomology, therefore, a pool of 
water may be made to furnish amusement and 
pleasurable occupation for many weeks. Bethink 
you for a moment, what an advantage, nay, what an 
untold treasure, it may thus become. When Titania, 
with all the powers fitting to her sphere, wishes to 
bestow what she deems most valuable, she exclaims, 

" I '11 give tliee fairies to attend on thee, 
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep." 

Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III. Sc. I. 

The goddess I serve will do more, — for she will 
" fetch thee jewels," not from the deep only, but 
from every ditch, every pool, every lake, every brawl- 
ing rivulet, in your vicinity. And those jewels are 
your own, — they cannot be lost, or stolen ; they abide, 
as all knowledge does, with the humble and sincere 
recipient, — they become part and parcel of his mental 
acquisitions. Which "jewels" are to be preferred ? 
— the physical or the mental ; those which adorn the 
body, or those which enrich the mind ? Which 
goddess, then, would you select ? Which potentate, 



IRREGULAR APPEARAXCE OF INSECTS. 245 

if you had the power of choice, would you serve ? 
In whose ranks would you be enrolled ? 

" Under which kin?, Bezonian? speak or die." 

Second Part of Henry IV., Act V. Sc. III. 

The mind, while engaged in this branch of science, 
is not only enriched by the knowledge of new facts, 
but is pleased and exercised in the endeavour to 
account for phenomena which seem to follow no 
regular order of succession. This is a legitimate and 
justifiable appplication of its powers : — 

" Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, 
Looking before and after, gave us not 
That capability and godlike reason, 
To fust in us unused."— H amlet, Act IV. Sc. IV. 

The investigation of the laws which regulate the 
appearance of any of the inferior animals, which 
send them forth as living beings endowed with all 
necessary instincts and powers, or which retard their 
developement for any indefinite periods of time, is 
deserving of attention from a reflecting and well- 
regulated mind. Many opportunities for such in- 
quiries will be afforded by Entomology, for some 
insects are so irregular in the time of their appear- 
ance, being abundant in some seasons, or for some 
clays, and then not seen again for successive years, 
that we are half tempted to exclaim, with Hamlet, — 



246 EXAMPLES FURNISHED BY 

" There 's something in this more than natural, if 
philosophy could find it out." Two or three exam- 
ples of the kind alluded to may be mentioned, es- 
pecially as they have occurred in the immediate vici- 
nity of this town. 

In August, 1825, a moth, with wings prettily 
marked, and of a metallic lustre (Plusia festucce), 
appeared one evening at Cranmore, in considerable 
numbers, flying among the shrubs and flowers. A 
few were seen on the succeeding night ; and from 
that period to the present, none, save one or two 
solitary specimens, have been observed. They were 
accompanied by unusual numbers of the gamma- 
moth, and seemed particularly attracted by large beds 
of the common pink (Dianthus caryophyllus), flitting 
from flower to flower, and banquetting on the nectar 
they afforded. 

A common little gnat (Chironomus virescens), ap- 
peared in 1832, in very unusual numbers, in this 
neighbourhood. Mr. Haliday, in speaking of this 
insect, remarks : — " This little fly caused no little 
alarm this summer ; its appearance in swarms being 
adjudged, by vulgar rumour, a precursor of cholera. 
In some places, they appeared in such numbers, that 
the inhabitants had some trouble in shovelling them 
out of their houses (in my informant's words) . At 



MOTHS AND COCKCHAFERS. 247 

Donaghadee, clouds (of this species) were observed 
coming from seaward." * 

Towards the latter end of the same summer, these 
little flies appeared one evening in immense multi- 
tudes in this town. Attracted by the light of the 
gas-lamps, they congregated around them, appearing 
like clouds, which were gradually lost in the surround- 
ing darkness, but to which the eye could discern 
no limit. They were particularly abundant on the 
northern side of Donegal-square, and along Welling- 
ton-place, and College-square East. 

The common cockchafer ( Melolontha vulgaris ) 
never appears here in such numbers as to cause that 
exhilirating bustle among the feathered tribes, 
described by Air. Knapp. f Neither does it produce 
that hum, heard when swarms are on the wing in the 
evening, which Kirby and Spence casually mention 
as an ordinary occurrence in England. % It is, on the 
contrary, an insect not generally known throughout 
the country ; and on more than one occasion, a spe- 
cimen of it has been brought to me as an addition to 
my cabinet. I was surprised, therefore, when, on 
the 22nd of May, 1835, I was informed by Mr. 
Scott, the intelligent head-gardener of the Marquis 

* Catalogue of Diptera occurring about Hollywood, in Downshire, 
Entomological Magazine, No. ii. p. 147. 
t Journal of a Naturalist. 
% Introduction to Entomology, vol. ii. p. 377. 



248 COCKCHAFERS IN 1835, 

of Donegal, that numbers of these insects were then 
appearing at Ormean, the residence of that nobleman. 
As the distance does not exceed a mile from Belfast, 
I walked out in the afternoon of that day, to witness 
the fact for myself — the best mode in every department 
of Natural History. I was shown, at the aviary, a large 
bowl of cockchafers, both male and female, which had 
been collected a few hours before ; I was then con- 
ducted along a gravel walk, through which the in- 
sects had forced themselves when emerging from the 
pupa state, and coming to the surface. The holes 
made by them along the walks, and the borders at 
either side, were so numerous, that one would almost 
have thought the place had been exposed to a heavy 
downward fire of musquetry. The walks had been 
made above nine years, been in constant use during 
all that period, and received, occasionally, an addi- 
tional coat of gravel. How wonderful, then, must 
the strength of the beetle have been, when it could 
force itself through this compact and indurated mass ! 
Yet, that it did so, admits of no dispute. The fact 
was first noticed by the Marquis himself, who, being 
then in rather delicate health, spent much of his 
time amid the walks of his own demesne. It was 
afterwards confirmed by the observations of several 
other witnesses ; and the condition of the walk, inde- 
pendent of any other evidence, would be proof suffi- 



axd ix 1688. 249 

cient. Mr. Scott informed me, that during the 
twelve years he had been at Ormean, he had not, 
until this season, seen a cockchafer ; and that the 
insect seemed equally unknown to all the labourers 
in his employment. I make no doubt, however, it 
would not thus have escaped the more prying eye of 
the Entomologist. 

In 1688, and for some years afterwards, a host of 
these insects occasioned no inconsiderable alarm and 
distress in the county of Galway, and even extended 
their ravages as far as the river Shannon. They ap- 
peared in such multitudes as to darken the air, and 
give serious annoyance to all who were travelling on 
the roads, or abroad in the fields. " A short while 
after their coming, they had so entirely eat up and 
destroyed all the leaves of trees, for some miles 
round about, that the whole country, although it was 
in the middle of summer, was left as bare and naked 
as if it had been in the depth of winter, making a 
most unseemly, and, indeed, frightful appearance ; 
and the noise they made while they were seizing and 
devouring this their prey, was as surprising ; for the 
grinding of the leaves in the mouths of this vast 
multitude all together, made a sound very much re- 
sembling the sawing of timber." * 

* Letters from Dr. T. Molyneux, F.R.S., to the Lord Bishop of 
Clogher, dated Dublin, 5th Oct. 1697, published in " Boate's Natural 
History of Ireland," Dublin, 1726, p. 165. 



"250 DELAYED GROWTH OF PARSLEY. 

The abundance of particular insects in some sea- 
sons, and their comparative scarcity, or total absence, 
in others, excites, naturally, the supposition, that 
some necessary condition for their developement has 
been wanting. What this may be, it would be use- 
less, in the present state of our knowledge, to con- 
jecture ; but it may not be out of place to remark, 
that a somewhat analogous fact is observable in the 
vegetable world. There are years, when particular 
plants assume an appearance of unwonted luxuriance ; 
and other years, when the same plants, under circum- 
stances apparently as favourable, are either stunted 
in their growth, or fail altogether to appear. One 
instance of this took place in a piece of ground 
visible from the windows of my own dwelling-house. 
On the site where the new wing of the Royal Aca- 
demical Institution now stands, my friend, the Rev. 
Henry Montgomery, LL.D., was in the habit of 
raising a few culinary vegetables. In the spring 
of 1830, he sowed, at the usual period, a consider- 
able quantity of parsley seed : it yielded no return. 
The ground was raked over again, and fresh seed 
sown, but with no better success. Between March 
and August, the operation was repeated four times, 
the ground being twice dug over, but not a leaf 
appeared. The next year the same piece of ground 
was planted with peas and cabbages, but no parsley 



INSECTS IN UNEXPECTED SITUATIONS. 251 

showed itself. Early in the spring of the third year 
(1832), and without any further labour or care, save 
that of digging to prepare for another crop, the place 
was covered with one dense and luxuriant mass of 
parsley, so thick and plentiful that every seed which 
had lain dormant for the preceding seasons seemed 
to have been endued at once with all the power re- 
quisite for a vigorous and fertile existence. 

As your labours may perhaps assist in shedding 
light o'er " the palpable obscure" which now shrouds 
the operations of nature in the developement both of 
insect and vegetable life, I shall dwell no longer on 
this topic. I pass on, therefore, to another, although 
I begin to fear you may be tempted to exclaim, 

" What ! will the line stretch out to the crack of doom ? " 
Macbeth, Act IV. Sell. 

The scarcity or total absence of particular insects 
at certain periods, and their great abundance at 
others, is a phenomenon that falls but seldom under 
the eye of the Entomologist. The discovery of a new 
or of a rare insect is a result which of course can 
only occasionally be obtained ; but there is another 
circumstance, which affords scarcely less pleasure, and 
which is by no means of such unusual occurrence. 
I refer to the discovery of insects, already known, but 
in places where apparently they were not likely to be 



252 PENTATOMA RTJFIPES IN BELFAST. 

found, or in localities where their existence had not 
previously been observed. This is another of those 
analogies which the mind delights to trace between 
the animal and vegetable world, for we not unfre- 
quently find an insect appearing 

" Like a wild flower, where it was least expected." 

One instance of this, of a somewhat ludicrous 
kind, fell under my observation while I lived in 
High-street. A favourite cat was observed by one 
of the servants to have caught, at the back entrance 
to the dwelling-house, a diminutive and unusual- 
looking object. It was taken from her clutches, and 
brought to me. On examination, I found it was one 
of those Cimicidce which feed on the juices of plants, 
and which, of course, are usually found in woody 
places. How it came into one of the principal busi- 
ness streets of Belfast it would be useless to con- 
jecture ; but when I announced that a specimen of 
Pentatoma rufipes had thus been captured, I was 
bantered not a little by the members of the house- 
hold, who alleged that poor pussy must have been 
smitten, like myself, with a fondness for entomo- 
logical pursuits. 

As another example of the same kind may be 
mentioned, the unexpected recognition, at Cranmore, 
of Cossonus Tardii, by my friend and fellow member, 



C0SS0XCS TARDII AT CRANM0RE. 253 

Robert Templeton, Esq., R.A. It was found by him 
in June, 1S29, on the under side of an alder which 
lay in the farm-yard, and had been stripped of its 
bark. This insect is one of the Curculionida, or 
weevil tribe. It was first discovered in July, 1822, 
under the bark of decayed hollies near Powerscourt 
waterfall, county of Wicklow, by the late James 
Tardy, Esq., of Dublin, in company with N. A. 
Vigors, Esq., who conferred its specific name in 
honour of his friend. Mr. Curtis remarks — " It ap- 
pears, like all wood-feeding insects, to be extremely 
local; for Mr. Tardy, in a letter, says — ' I have in 
vain sought for it in places abounding as much in 
holly, and in similar situations, in the same county.'" 
In fact, I believe the Irish Cossonus, for so it is 
called, had not been detected in any locality except 
that where it was originally discovered, until it fell 
under the observation of Mr. Templeton. It is still 
taken at Cranmore, in precisely the same situation 
where it was first observed, and usually in little 
groups of four or five individuals, ranged together 
side by side. It is not, however, strictly confined to 
the one spot, but has also been taken in the adjoining 
garden, and is particularly abundant under the de- 
caying bark of alders. 

The last instance I shall adduce of the seizure of 
known insects in unexpected situations relates to one 



254 BURYING BEETLE ON SLEIVE CROOB. 

of the burying beetles (Silphidte). Their English 
name imports what is their most distinguishing 
occupation, which is, in reality, that of interring the 
bodies of numerous small animals. They are grave- 
diggers by profession. It is their " vocation," and 
most sedulously do they perform its duties. At first 
view, one of this tribe would seem to lead a very 
laborious life, but " custom hath made it in him a 
property of easiness," and the object to be attained 
converts the labour into enjoyment. That object is 
to provide a proper nidus for the eggs, and provide 
the future grubs with the sustenance necessary for 
their subsistence and developement. Of course 
the beetle is usually to be found where there are 
decaying animal substances, or fungi similar in 
smell. One of them (Necrophorus mortuorum) was, 
however, taken where it was " least" to be " ex- 
pected," near the summit of Sleive Croob. This is 
a high mountain in the county of Down, and can 
scarcely be ascended in favourable weather without 
exciting the feeling so well embodied in the exclama- 
tion of the poet : — 

" Oh ! there is sweetness in the mountain air, 
And life, that bloated Ease can never hope to share." 

Ckilcle Harold, Canto I. Stanza XXX. 

It was here, far away from all appearance of putrid 
or decaying substances, with the pure and balmy 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF THE SCIENCES. 2dD 

breezes of the mountain playing around us, that the 
insect was observed. The party, consisting of three 
of my fellow members, and myself, was about com- 
mencing the descent, when the beetle, with a flight 
particularly strong and vigorous, darted into one of 
our gauze nets, and continued for a considerable 
time afterwards to make a humming noise, not unlike 
that of a bee when angry. 

And now, my dear Arnold, I shall detain you no 
longer. The field seems indeed inexhaustible, but 
as you are about entering on its investigation for 
yourself, I need not enlarge on its productions. One 
of my objects has been already accomplished : I 
fondly hope " the greatest is behind." I expect 
that one branch of inquiry is, in your case, but " the 
happy prologue" to another; for all the sciences are 
so connected, that, although we distinguish them by 
several names, we cannot understand one, without 
paying homage to many others on the same vigorous 
and graceful stem. While, therefore, I say — 
" thou shalt be as free 



As mountain winds,"— Tempest, Act I. Sc. II. 

I anticipate that, while you observe the various tribes 
of insects in their several haunts, you will gradually 
and almost insensibly acquire a knowledge of the 
botanical characteristics of those leafy dwellings 
which so many of them frequent, and hence be pre- 



256 



CONCLUSION. 



pared to wander, at some future period, amid the 

wild flowers of Spring, the richer denizens of the 

parterre, and the deep and luxuriant forests, which 

are depicted by Shakspeare. Whether these or their 

feathered choristers be your study, you will find in 

Nature, however varied her costume and external 

appearance, 

" A prone and speechless dialect 

Such as moves men, 

And well she can persuade." 

Measure far Measure, Act I. Sc. III. 




&i^^ 




INJURIES OCCASIONED BY INSECTS IN DIFFERENT 
FARTS OF IRELAND. 

An orange -coloured gnat (Tipula tritici K.),* be- 
longing to the genus Cecidomyia of Latreille, fre- 
quently proves very destructive to the wheat crop, by 
depositing its eggs in the centre of the corolla. The 
loss occasioned by the young grub which is there 
produced is unhappily too well known. In this dis- 



* For figures of two destructive species of Cecidomyia, see p. 25. 
See also an article, by Mr. Westwood, on the Destructive Properties 
of Insects, in Loudon's Gardener's Magazine, No. 85, April, 1S37. 



258 OTIORYNCHUS NOTATUS, ETC. 

trict its ravages in the summer of 1828 produced no 
inconsiderable degree of alarm. 

Another individual of the same genus (C bicolor) 
deposits her eggs in the leaf-buds of one of our pret- 
tiest spring-flowers, — the Veronica chamcedrys. The 
nidus, thus formed, might at first glance be mis- 
taken for a seed-vessel, but if broken open will ex- 
hibit a small reddish caterpillar, the embryo of the 
future insect. The attacks of the fly seem as wide- 
ly diffused as the plant itself, for they have attracted 
my attention in various parts of the soutb, and 
throughout the northern counties of Ireland. 

In May, 1827, the young grafts of apple-trees in 
an extensive nursery belonging to the late Mr. Har- 
vey, near this town, were destroyed by a reddish- 
grey coloured weevil (Otiorhynchus notatus) ; almost 
the entire plantation fell a sacrifice to the attacks of 
this insect. 

In June, 1830, a considerable loss was sustained 
in the Botanic Garden here, from another individual 
of the same tribe. (Otiorhynchus vastator and Ligustici). 
It destroyed a vast number of flowers, by ascending 
the stems at night, and cutting them through. Dur- 
ing the day-time it buried itself in the earth, from 
which its colour was scarcely distinguishable. 

A more formidable visitor was, however, the wire- 
worm. Many who have had their crops of grain or 



HALTICA PARVULA. 259 

of grass injured by its depredations, are not aware 
that it is the grub of a very common beetle, one of 
those popularly termed skipjacks (Hemerhipus segetis). 
It destroyed in the garden, during the same season, 
above a thousand plants, but fortunately few or none 
of a rare or valuable kind. One plant was raised for 
examination, and above fifty wire-worms were found 
preying on its roots. For this information I was 
indebted to the late Mr. Thomas Drummond, then 
curator of the garden. 

As linen is the staple manufacture of this part of 
the country, and gives employment in various de- 
partments to many thousand persons, the flax crop is 
naturally regarded as one of very high importance ; 
yet here a diminutive insect had the hardihood 
to interfere, and, despite of all the efforts of man, 
nearly destroyed, in many parts of the county Down, 
in the summer of 1827, the entire crop of flax. The 
minute assailant was a little jumping beetle (Haltica 
parvula) *, resembling that called the tumip-fly, but 
much smaller. Specimens of it are preserved in the 
cabinet of Mr. G. C. Hyndman. 

In 1832 I visited the county Wicklow, and heard 
from several persons there, an account of the defolia- 
tion produced by a caterpillar. It was stated that 

* See ante, p. 22. 

s 2 



260 PYG^RA BUCEPHALA. 

many trees had at Midsummer the appearance they 
usually present at Christmas, and that they put forth 
a second growth of leaves. Great fear, which a little 
knowledge of Entomology would have dispelled, was 
entertained by the country people, that when the 
leaves of the forest trees had been devoured, their 
potato crops would next have been attacked. The 
denudation caused by this caterpillar extended from 
Arklow along the " sweet vale of Avoca," past " the 
meeting of the waters," and on to the entrance of 
the valley of the Seven Churches. I am unable, from 
the vague accounts I received, to form any idea of 
the species by which these ravages had been com- 
mitted. From the manner in which some oak trees in 
this neighbourhood have been stripped of their leaves, 
by the caterpillars of the bufftip moth {Pygara buce- 
phalci), it is possible this more extensive defoliation 
may have been occasioned by the same insect. 

An instance of destruction caused by another cater- 
pillar came to my knowledge, near to Portarlington, 
Queen's County. The insect destroyer in this case 
was the larva of a moth, not merely rare, but, so far 
as I have been able to ascertain, unrecorded, as be- 
long to our Irish Fauna, — I mean the goat-moth 
(Cossus ligniperda) . It was discovered at Woodbrook, 
the seat of Major Chetwood, in 1830. Some trees 
in the demesne had assumed an unhealthy appear- 



COSSUS L1GXIPEKDA. 261 

ance ; my informant, a member of the family, hap- 
pened to strike one of them smartly with his stick, 
when, to his surprise, the bark gave way, and re- 
vealed a colony of caterpillars. In consequence 
of this discovery, and for the purpose of at once 
extirpating the cause of the evil, six or eight full- 
grown trees were felled, and about two hundred of 
these new and unknown caterpillars destroyed. My 
friend was soon after this time informed what they 
really were, and received so many applications for 
specimens, that he was induced to institute a strict 
search for them through the plantations, but without 
success. In the ensuing summer he renewed his 
scrutiny, with precisely the same result, nor did 
he succeed until July, 1832, when a large ash tree 
in the lawn evinced unequivocal symptoms of being 
the object of attack. The caterpillars were at that 
time rapidly proceeding with their mining operations. 
Three of them were brought to Belfast by my brother, 
and five of them about two months afterwards by 
myself. By comparing them with drawings and de- 
scriptions I was then fully convinced that they were 
the larvae of the Cossus ligniperda ; but I had not 
the gratification of seeing the perfect moth, for none 
of them attained maturity, and only one assumed 
the form, of a chrysalis. 

The caterpillars of a smaller moth were very abun- 



262 YPONOMEUTA ETJONYMELLA. 

dant in some parts of the county a few years ago, 
and caused considerable defoliation. The moth 
(Yponomeuta euonymella) is white; its wings prettily 
marked with numerous black dots. The larvse spin a 
large white web, not unlike some kind of cotton fabric ; 
and under this they live together in numerous com- 
munities. In 1828 they appeared in such quantities 
about Whitehouse, three miles from this town, that 
all the Euonymus trees in the shrubberies there were 
destroyed, the leaves being devoured, and the plant 
covered by their webs, or rather enveloped in them. 
At the Cave Hill every plant of the Euonymus euro- 
pctus, which there grows wild, was left without a 
leaf. Along the Falls road the ravages of the same 
caterpillar were visible. From Lough Neagh T have 
specimens of this insect, along with some of an allied 
species (Yponomeuta padella) which assisted in the 
work of devastation. Mr. William M'Clure, wine- 
merchant of this town, informed me, that he had an 
extensive orchard on the banks of the Lough, at the 
Crumlin river, which sustained very considerable da- 
mage from the destruction of the crop by these assail- 
ants. My friend, Mr. John Brown of Randalstown, 
made at my request some inquiry respecting these 
insects, and in March, 1834, kindly communicated 
the following information with regard to their ravages 
in that neighbourhood : — 



YPOXOMEUTA PADELLA. 263 

" The gardener at Shane's Castle informs me, that 
the caterpillar so injurious to apple trees made its 
appearance for the first time on the spindle-tree, or 
forest-box, and the elder in the park, principally 
about the mouth of the river Main, in the year 1819. 
In 1820 the apple trees in Shane's Castle nursery 
were infested, and in the following season all the 
apple trees in both garden and nursery. For several 
years in succession the trees exhibited very little of 
either leaves or fruit, and so ruinous were the depre- 
dations of the caterpillars considered, that about the 
year 1827 or 1828 Lord O'Neill ordered to be 
raised and thrown into the lake, all the apple trees in 
the nursery, and a number trained as espaliers in the 
garden. His order was obeyed as to the raising ; 
but the trees were collected by two farmers, who 
' headed down' and planted them in their gardens, 
where they have since become healthy, and produced 
good crops. Between the years 1826 and 1828 the 
evil was at the worst ; since then it continued to 
decline, until 1830 or 1831, when it entirely ceased. 
Nearly all the fruit at Shane's Castle was destroyed ; 
and in Mr. Adams's garden I know that fully one- 
half was lost." 

I shall conclude my enumeration of the ravages 
committed by caterpillars by an instance of the evil 
caused by the grubs of the Tipulidce, or crane-flies,, 



264 LARVAE OF THE TIPULA. 

For this information I am indebted to my friend, 
James Grimshaw, jun. Esq., of Whitehouse, one of 
the original members of our Natural History Society, 
who thus communicated the fact as it fell under his 
observation : — 

" In the spring of 1817 the ravages committed by 
the larva? of the Tipula were so great, that many crops 
of clover and grass, in the neighbourhood of Lurgan, 
were lost, and almost all, with very few exceptions, 
materially injured. I was at that time staying with 
an intimate friend, Mr. Christy of Kircassock, who 
complained that whole fields, which were laid down 
in grass and clover, were so infested by what is usually 
called the cut-worm, — that he had nearly come to the 
resolution of again breaking up the fields, and plant- 
ing them anew. My friend was accounted one of the 
best agriculturists in the district ; and, by careful 
examination, he ere long discovered the destroyer, 
and the remedy soon followed. He took me to seve- 
ral fields to show me the cause of the evil. When 
he removed the earth with his hand, to the depth of 
about an inch, the part which was laid bare appeared 
quite alive with a thick short grub of a dirty green- 
ish appearance. These grubs attacked the roots of 
the grass, and the weather being remarkably dry, the 
crop soon perished. At that time, in fields where 
the verdure one day appeared lively and green, in 



NEMATTJS RIBESII. 265 

three or four days afterwards every blade of grass 
would be dried up, and nothing meet the eye but the 
red earth, as if the proprietor had laid out his ground 
for a summer fallow 7 . I asked him how it was possible 
to get rid of this grub, and found his remedy was to 
roll the field with a heavy roller, drawn by a horse, 
and thus to crush the larvse." 

While these sheets were passing through the press 
I have had the pleasure of perusing a paper written 
by my relative, B. J. Clarke, Esq., on the natural 
history of one of our garden pests, the Gooseberry 
saw-fly. I can now only avail myself of the part in 
which its ravages are mentioned. Mr. Clarke says, 
" On arching at La Bergerie (Portar ling ton, Queen's 
County) the latter end of June, 1837, 1 was informed 
by the gardener, that what he termed the green - 
worm blight was rapidly stripping the gooseberry 
and currant plantations of their leaves, and that, 
when he shook the trees, a profusion of the green- 
worm, to use his own expression, fell from them. 
On inspection, I found the injury arose from count- 
less numbers of the larvse of the gooseberry saw-fly 
(Nematiis ribesii), which adhered to the leaves, de- 
vouring all the pulpy part, and leaving nothing but 
the thick fibres standing out, giving the denuded 
trees a most spectral appearance. I frequently reck- 
oned twenty or thirty of these pseudo-caterpillars, 



266 DESTRUCTION OF GOOSEBERRY TREES. 

as Reaumur terms them, clinging to one leaf by 
their pro-legs, and never leaving it, as long as a 
particle of green matter remained. What appeared 
remarkable was, that they carefully avoided the 
black currant trees, and should one intervene in their 
course of devastation it always remained perfectly 
untouched. By the end of the first week in July 
they had completed their work of demolition, the 
fruit hanging exposed to the scorching rays of the 
sun, which completely deprived it of flavour."— "By 
the middle of August the trees had so far recovered 
their leaves as to afford a hope of some fruit being 
saved, when the second brood of larvae made their 
appearance, and commenced their work of destruction 
on the young foliage." 




INDEX. 



Acherontia Atropos, 162. 
Acheta campestris, 102. 

domestica, 97. 

Adephaara, 77. 

Admiral butterfly, 159. 

Agrionidae, 234. 

Anacreon, ode of, to the Cicada, 

111. 
Anguis fragilis, 39. 
Ants, white, 21. 

, destruction by, 43. 

Ants, 140. 

, notstorers-upof (jrain, 142. 

Aphaniptera, organs of, 60. 
Aphis humuli, 23. 
Aptera, organs of, 61. 
Arachnida;, 207. 
Argynnis Aglaia, 156. 
Paphia, 155. 

Balaninus nucum, 38. 
Bee, mouth of, 49. 
Bees, swarming of, 114. 

, humming of, 117. 

, sting of,"l26. 

, mode of obtaining the 

honev, without destroying 

them, 128. 
Bees' wax, 120. 
Beetles, great strength of, 74. 

, cleanliness of, 75. 

Bernbidium paludosum, 83. 
Bibio lanigerus, 189. 
Blatta orientals, 108. 
Blethisa borealis, S3. 
Blind-worm, 39. 
Blue-bottle fly, 179. 

,their changes of colour, 180. 

Bombus muscohun, 52. 
Bots, 201. 

Brimstone moth, 155. 
" Brize," the, 198. 



Buff-tip moth, 260. 
Butterfly, thj, 148. 

, universally diffused, 149. 

, a symbol of the soul, 151. 

, the, its inconstant flight, 

153. 

, its visual powers, 155. 

, species found near Belfast 

158. 

Caddis-worms, 238. 

Calepteryx Virgo and C. Ludo- 
viciana, 234. 

Carabidee, 78. 

Carabus clathratus and C. nitens, 
83. 

Caterpillars, 31, 16S. 

Cecidomyia destructor and C. 
tritici, 25. 

bicolor, 258. 

Changes, periodical, of the ex- 
ternal world, 6. 

Chironomus virescens, 246. 

Chrysalis state of insects, 32. 

Cicada, the, 111. 

Cicindela campestris, 84. 

Cimex lectularius, (bug,) 59. 

Cockchafers, swarms of, occa- 
sionally seen in Ireland, 247. 

Cockroaches, 108. 

Coleoptera, 45, 63, 75. 

Cossonus Tardii, 252. 

Cossus ligniperda, 260. 

Crane-flies, 264. 

Cricket, the, 97. 

, its mirthful chirp, 99. 

, its shyness, 103. 

, manner of producing its 

note, 105. 

Cuckoo-spit, 110. 

Culex detritus, 186. 

pipiens, 196. 



268 



Cynips quercus-folii, 25. 
Cynthia Cardui, 157. 

Day-fly, 24. 

Death, feigned, of animals, 72. 

Death's head sphinx, 162. 

December moth, 150. 

" Demoiselles," 233. 

Diptera, 175. 

, organs of, 57. 

Dipterous insects, their diminu- 
tive size, 183. 

, their aerial dances, 1S5. 

, universally diffused, 187. 

, some species seen in win- 
ter, 188. 

Dor, common, 64, 71. 

Dragon-flies, 230. 

, their rapacity, 232. 

, mode of depositing their 

eggs, 237. 

Drone-bees, the, 53, 116. 

Dyticus marginalis, 241. 

Earthworm, common, 38. 
Education, defects of, 4. 
Entomology, advantages of, 17. 

, popular ignorance of, 82. 

, attractions of, 244. 

Epeira diadema, 213. 
Ephemera vulgata, 24. 
Eriogaster populi, 150. 
Euonymus europasus, 252. 

Flea, the, 60, 204. 
Flesh-flies, 176. 

, their fecundity, 179. 

Flies, annoyances occasioned by, 

194. 
, mode of excluding them 

from houses, 195. 
"Flies at Bartholomew tide," 

203. 
Fly, the, 191. 
Foot, difference of the, of the 

cricket and grasshopper, 110. 

Gad-fly, the, 198. 
Gasterophilus equi, 201. 
Geotrupes stercorarius, 47, 67. 

vernalis, 70. 

Glow-worm, 85. 

, not found in Ireland, 89. 

Gnat, common, 196. 
Goat-moth, 260. 
Gonepterix Rhamni, 154. 



Gooseberry saw-fly, 265. 
Gossamer, 219. 

, theories respecting its emis- 
sion, 221. 
Grasshopper, the, 96. 
Grayling, 156. 
Great water-beetle, 241. 
Gryllotalpa vulgaris, 48. 
Gyrinus natator, 92. 
villosus, 93. 

Haltica parvula, 259. 
Hemerhipus segetis, 259. 
Hemiptera, organs of, 59. 
Hepialus humuli, 173. 
Hipparchia pamphilus, 150. 
- — Semele, 157. 
Honey, 120. 

Honey-comb, symmetry of, 125. 
Honey-dew, 144. 
Hum of the beetle, 65. 
Humble-bee, 52, 119. 
Hymenoptera, 113. 

Ichneumon globatus, 229. 

Ichneumons, 227. 

, mode of depositing their 

eggs, 228. 

Insects, form and colour of, 17. 

, greatness of their num- 
bers, 18. 

, benefits conferred by, 23. 

, transformations of, 30. 

, larva state of, 31. 

, chrysalis state of, 32. 

, organs of, 42. 

, parasitic, 73. 

, sensibility of, 79, 170. 

, manner of producing their 

note, 105. 

, localities of, 157. 

, deposition of the eggs of, 

173. 

— — , cruelty to them reproved, 
182. 

, number of lenses in the 

eyes of, 235. 

, irregular appearance of, 

245. 

, found in unexpected situa- 
tions, 251. 

, injuries occasioned by, in 

different parts of Ireland, 257. 

Lampyris noctiluca, 85. 
Lepidoptera, 147. 



269 



Lepidoptera, universally dif- 
fused. 149. 

, organs of, 55. 

Libellulina, 231. 

Locust, the, British species of, 
107. 

. not mentioned by Shaks- 

peare, 107. 

Locusta Christii, 107. 

grossa, 109. 

li Long-legged Spinners," 215. 

Louse; the, 60. 

Lozotrena Rosana, 34. 

Lumbricus terrestris, 3S. 

Lycosa, 217. 

Magpie moth, the, 30. 

Mask of the larva of the dragon- 
fly, 23fi. 

Melokmtha vulgaris, 247. 

Mole cricket, 41. 

Mosquito, the, 196. 

ZUosquitoes, torment occasioned 
by them, 197. 

" Moth," in what sense the word 
used bv Shakspeare, 164. 

Moths, 163. 

, various species of, 165. 

, classic, 166. 

Mouths of insects, 46. 

Musca carnaria, 178. 

vomitoria, 179. 

domestica and M. rudis, 



Natural History, may be allied 
to poetry, 7. 

Necrophofus mortuoruni, 254. 

Xematus ribesii, 265. 

Nepa cinerea, 243. 

Notonecta glauca, (boat-fly,) 243. 

"Nuptial lamp," of the glow- 
worm, 87. 

Nut Weevil, the, 37. 

CEstrus bovis, 198, 200. 
CEstrus ovis, 202. 
( )rthoptera, 48, 95. 
Otiorynchus notatus, O. vasta- 
tor, and O. Ligustici, 258. 

Painted Ladv, 157. 

Palpi, 47. 

Fapilionidae, Irish varieties of, 

158. 
Parsley, delayed growth of, 250. 



Peacock butterfly, the, 160. 

Pentatoma rufipes, 252. 

Phalangidfe, 215. 

Phryganea;, 237. 

Pimpla manifestator, 227. 

Plusia festucK, 246. 

" Pretty worm of Nilus," 39. 

Prometheus moth, 33. 

Pygsera bucephala, 260. 

Queen Bee, the, 115. 

Rumia crateegata, 155. 

Scarabams sacer, 68. 

Sciences, mutual dependence of, 
255. 

Sealing-wax. 121. 

Shakspeare, his accurate ob- 
servation, 9. 

, number of notices of na- 
tural objects contained in his 
plays, 11. 

, the pleasure of reading his 

works much increased by a 
knowledge of natural history, 
29. 

, his plastic power of mould- 
ing every object in nature to 
his will, 53. 

. explanation of obscure pas- 
sages of, 80. 

, vindication of, 86. 

, his splendid description of 

the economy of a bee-hive, 115. 

, his knowledge of the habits 

of spiders, 214. 

" Sharded beetle," the, 45, 66. 

Shard, various meanings of the 
word, 66. 

Silkworm, the, 36. 

Silver-streak butterflv, 155. 

Silver-spot butterfly, 156. 

Sphinxes, the, 161. 

, varieties of, taken near 

Belfast, 162. 

Spider, the, 207, 210. 

Spiders not classed with insects, 
208. 

, their poisonous fluid, 216. 

, not noxious to man, 217. 

Spiders' w-ebs, 212. 

Tettigonia spumaria, 110. 
Tettix, the, 110. 
" The Canker," 35. 



270 



" The poor beetle that we tread 

upon," 79. 
Theridium verecundum, 216. 
Tineidse, 33. 
Tipula tritici, 257. 
Tipulidae, 25, 188. 

, larva: of, 263. 

Tortoise-shell butterfly, 159. 
Turnip-fly, the, 22. 

Vanessa urtics, 159. 

Io, 160. 

Atalanta, 159. 

Verses suggested by the gossa- 
mer, 222. 



Wasps, 133. 

, paper-makers, 134. 

, their nests, 135. 

, their irascibility, 136. 

" Water-fly," 90. 
Water-scorpion, 243. 
" Weaving spiders," 215. 
Wild-bees, supposed to be the 

harbingers of the white man, 

131. 
Wire-worm, the, 22, 258. 

Yellow brimstone butterfly, 154. 
Yponomeuta euonymella, and 
Y. padella, 252. 



THE END. 



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